NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is making progress in its counteroffensive against Russian invaders and predicted NATO leaders will increase military assistance to Kyiv when they meet next month.
Stoltenberg made the comments as he met at the White House with President Joe Biden after Russian missile strikes on the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy killed 11 people.
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Stoltenberg's visit to Washington came as Ukraine attempts to seize back territory as part of a long-awaited counteroffensive against the Russian invaders.
"The support that we are providing together to Ukraine is now making a difference on the battlefield as we speak because the Ukrainians have launched the offensive," he said. "They are making advances; they are gaining ground."
The more land the Ukrainians are able to liberate, the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating table and the more likely it is that Russian President Vladimir Putin will understand that he will never win, Stoltenberg said, adding that more aid will be pledged next month at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Biden reiterated that the U.S. commitment to NATO was rock solid and that NATO allies would "be building on that momentum" when they meet in Vilnius.
As the meeting took place, the U.S. State Department announced a new $325 million package of ammunition and heavy weaponry to top up Ukraine's supplies.
In Moscow, Putin spoke with Russian journalists and bloggers at a televised news conference from the Kremlin. He said the counteroffensive was failing and Ukraine was suffering losses 10 times higher than Moscow's.
"Their losses are approaching a level that could be described as catastrophic," Putin said during the briefing.
WATCH: A Russian missile struck a five-story apartment building in the early hours of June 13 in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryviy Rih, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens.
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Russian Air Strikes Claim Lives In Zelenskiy's Hometown
He did not provide the number of killed and wounded but mentioned that Russian troops lost 54 tanks. He estimated Ukraine's losses at 160 tanks and more than 360 armored vehicles. There is no independent confirmation of Putin's claims.
Putin also said he saw no need for a new mobilization but said it would depend on what Russia wanted to achieve in the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine called Putin's comments about Ukrainian losses "self-suggestion" and "self-conviction."
Putin's advisers speak with him in a way that meets the need to "present victory reports, not to inform him that in fact the Ukrainians are succeeding," Andriy Kovalev, a spokesman for a Ukrainian territorial defense brigade, said on an RFE/RL Ukrainian Service program.
SEE ALSO: 'We Want To Defeat Russia,' Says British Historian Figes, 'But We Don't Want To Push It Into Civil War And Chaos'"They are trying to explain their defeats at the front by saying the troops are fighting powerfully, destroying Ukrainian equipment and drawing some incredible numbers," he said.
Zelenskiy condemned the attack on his hometown, saying on Telegram that "terrorists will never be forgiven." He also expressed condolences to people who lost loved ones.
The Ukrainian capital's military administration reported that Kyiv came under fire as well, but all missiles were shot down. There were no reports of any casualties in Kyiv.
Separately, Ukraine's air-defense system said it had managed to shoot down 10 out of 15 incoming Russian missiles, as well as one Iranian-made drone during the attack.
The latest wave of Russian strikes came as the Ukrainian military said that seven settlements had been liberated in the southern and eastern regions of the country and further advances had been made in Bakhmut amid heavy fighting.
"Both defensive and offensive fierce fighting is ongoing in the east and south of our nation. We have certain gains, implementing our plans, moving forward," said Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander in chief of Ukrainian forces.
In the area of Bakhmut, the Donetsk city that has been the theater of the war's longest and most brutal battle so far, Ukrainian forces conducted both defensive and offensive actions over the past 24 hours, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskiy said early on June 13.
"Our forces continue the defense operation on the Bakhmut front. Our soldiers are [also] advancing on the flanks, where the enemy is losing positions," he wrote on Telegram.
"The national flag is flying over [the village of] Storozhove again, and this will be the case with every settlement until we liberate all Ukrainian land," Ukrainian forces' press center reported in a message accompanied by a video showing Ukrainian soldiers patrolling the village.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine's Kherson Region Faces 'Ecological Catastrophe' Amid Ongoing FightingThe recapture of six other villages had been reported earlier by the Ukrainian military. The claims could not be independently confirmed, and Moscow has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gains.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been complicated by the bursting on June 6 of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of mining the dam and deliberately causing its destruction to flood Kherson region in the south and slow down its counteroffensive.
Putin said during the Kremlin briefing that Russia had had no interest in blowing up the dam and was now not afraid of a possible Ukrainian offensive across the Dnieper. He noted that since the dam burst "the offensive did not take place.”