Ukrainian Counteroffensive Reports Small Gains Against Strong Resistance

Fighting continues to be intense in parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, with Kyiv reporting small territorial gains as its counteroffensive meets strong resistance from entrenched Russian forces.

In a July 3 post on Twitter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote that "last week was difficult on the front line, but we are making progress."

“We are moving forward, step by step,” he added.

The remarks came after Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar wrote in posts on Telegram on July 2 that 9 square kilometers had been liberated from Russian occupation in the Donetsk region over the past week, a change she said was "a result of improving the tactical position."

In the south, Malyar wrote, over 28 square kilometers had been recaptured during the same period.

She added that "both offensive and defensive operations are ongoing in the east," with "heavy fighting going on there now."

The Russian military also reported intense fighting in the areas around the Donetsk region cities of Bakhmut, Lyman, Maryinka, and Avdiyivka.

RFE/RL cannot confirm claims of battlefield developments by either side in areas of heavy fighting.

NATO’s top military official, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, told journalists in Brussels on July 3 that Kyiv's counteroffensive launched last month was "difficult" and not "an easy walkover."

Bauer compared the counteroffensive to the Allied D-Day landings in France in 1944.

"We saw in Normandy in the Second World War that it took seven, eight, nine weeks for all the allies to actually break through the defensive lines of the Germans," Bauer said. "So it is not a surprise that it is not going fast."

In its daily briefing on July 3, the Ukrainian General Staff reported 57 air strikes and around 60 rocket attacks against Ukrainian positions during the previous 24 hours.

Some 39 clashes were reported, as well.

Ukraine Claims Forces Gaining Ground As Counteroffensive Trudges On

Three cruise missiles and 13 Shahed attack drones had reportedly been shot down.

A Russian drone attack on July 3 killed one person and injured 16 local residents in Ukraine's northeastern city of Sumy. The region’s military administration said four Iran-made Shahed kamikaze drones hit an administrative building and two multifloor residential buildings in the city center.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak reported that enemy fire had struck the towns of Marhanets and Nikopol during the night of July 2-3, injuring one civilian and damaging several buildings and vehicles.

On July 2, Ukraine's PEN club announced that writer and activist Viktoria Amelina, 37, had died the previous day of injuries sustained on June 27 during a Russian rocket attack on a restaurant in Kramatorsk.

Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Amelina had been documenting alleged crimes by Russian forces for the Truth Hounds human rights nongovernmental organization.

Thirteen people, including three children, were killed in the Kramatorsk strike, while about 60 people were injured.

SEE ALSO: Death Of Ukrainian Writer Amelina In Kramatorsk Rocket Attack Prompts Outpouring Of Grief

Off the battlefield, Zelenskiy on July 3 spoke by phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the German leader’s spokesperson said.

Among the issues was a call by the two leaders for the extension of a deal allowing safe export of grain and fertilizers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, something the Kremlin on the same day said is unlikely.

Moscow has threatened not to extend the deal beyond July 17, claiming international sanctions are impeding its own agricultural exports. Russia is demanding restored access to the SWIFT financial messaging system -- which was closed to Russian banks following Russia’s invasion -- along with access to farm-machinery supplies and the lifting of insurance restrictions.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu commented for the first time on last month’s failed armed rebellion by the leader of Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling the mutiny "a provocation."

"The provocation did not affect the activities of the armed forces" in Ukraine, he said in a statement, claiming Prigozhin's "plans failed mostly because the armed forces' personnel remained loyal to its oath and military duties."

The Wall Street Journal cited sources in Western intelligence as saying the major goal of Prigozhin's mutiny was to detain Shoigu and the chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Valery Gerasimov.

With reporting by Reuters