Ukraine, which is awaiting a wider counter-offensive in the coming weeks, has confirmed that it has launched an offensive against the Russians in the eastern city of Pakmut. The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, General Oleksandr Chersky, launched a counterattack in the city of Pakmut, forcing the Russian forces to abandon some positions.

However, he stressed that the situation near besieged Pakmut was still “extremely complicated” as “heavy fighting continues as Russian forces try to break through the defense lines in several directions,” local media reported.

As he said, members of the Wagner group, along with other groups of Russian mercenaries, were flocking to the frontlines despite heavy losses.

And the White House announced yesterday, Monday, that estimates by US intelligence services show that Russian forces’ losses in fighting on Ukrainian soil since last December (2022) have been 20,000 dead and 80,000 wounded.

He pointed out that half of those killed were from Wagner, and most of them were former prisoners, “who had been thrown into battle without adequate military training or leadership in Buckmut.”

For months, it is notable that Russia has clung to control of the Pakmut, which it views as a key axis in its forces’ slow advance in eastern Ukraine, more than a year after the ground invasion it launched will implement. Advance more widely to control the entire Donbass region.

Wagner, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, spearheaded that violent war, which caused heavy losses on both sides, as Prigozhin had admitted not long ago.