Ukrainian forces attempted to mount a large-scale offensive in the southern part of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Monday.

In a statement, the ministry said that on Sunday, Ukrainian troops attempted to attack Russian forces using six mechanized and two tank battalions. However, it added that as a result of the actions of the ‘East’ military grouping, as well as owing to air strikes and artillery fire near the settlements of Neskuchnoye and Novodarovka, both of which are some 100km west of Donetsk, the Ukrainian forces incurred “significant losses.”

As a result of the botched attack, in the last 24 hours Ukraine has lost up to 300 service members, 16 tanks, 26 armored and 14 ordinary vehicles, the statement read. “The enemy failed to accomplish its goals,” the ministry concluded.

The ministry’s statement comes after earlier in the day it said that Ukraine had tried to break through Russian defenses in five sections of the front line in Donbass using its “strategic reserves,” but failed to do so. 

Ukrainian officials have for months promised to launch a counteroffensive, which initially was expected to happen in spring. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has on numerous occasions said that Kiev was “ready” for the push but “still needs a bit more time” in order to receive more Western weapons.

Ukraine’s General Staff provided no comment on the counteroffensive, saying only that there had been 29 combat clashes in the Donetsk and neighboring Lugansk Regions in the last 24 hours. Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications also failed to address Moscow’s statement head-on, but accused Russia of attempting to “spread false information” in order to demoralize Ukrainians.

A video showing losses suffered by Ukrainian troops in their unsuccessful attack in the south of the Donetsk People’s Republic has been released by the Russian Defense Ministry (MOD). It shows Ukrainian heavy equipment, mostly supplied by Kiev’s Western backers, being destroyed by Russian strikes during the clashes on Sunday.

The footage published by the MOD on its Telegram channel shows six Ukrainian vehicles moving through open terrain. Five of them appear to be Western-supplied Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, with the sixth resembling an armored personnel carrier or an armored fighting vehicle.

Three of the MRAPs are then shown being destroyed by Russian strikes, with one of them engulfed in plumes of gray smoke. The video also shows four more examples of heavy equipment being taken out while apparently moving along a country road.

The presentation ends with several views of Ukrainian armored vehicles and at least one tank being hit by Russian projectiles. The exact quantity of destroyed Ukrainian equipment remains unclear.

Earlier, the Defense Ministry said that a large-scale Ukrainian offensive attempt in the southern part of the Donetsk People’s Republic had been successfully repelled by Russian forces on Sunday. Ukraine fielded six mechanized and two tank battalions for the operation, the MOD stated.

The ministry reported that Kiev’s forces lost up to 300 service members, 16 tanks, 26 armored and 14 ordinary vehicles over the last 24 hours. Later, a spokesman for the Russian ‘East’ troop grouping said in a video statement that one Ukrainian mechanized brigade alone lost over 250 soldiers, 16 tanks and 24 armored vehicles, including three US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, during the botched assault.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces continued their attacks in the south of the Donetsk People’s Republic and sent three fresh battalion tactical groups supported by tanks into action, the spokesman said, adding that the Ukrainian forces’ advance attempt had been thwarted.

Kiev admitted on Monday that its troops had launched an offensive “on certain fronts.” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, Anna Maliar, downplayed the situation “in the south” as “local fighting.” She also claimed that the military had launched a major operation targeting the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine.

Artyomovsk was captured by the Wagner private military company founded by Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin in late May 2023. Since then, Ukrainian forces have attempted to attack the flanks of the Russian forces holding the city. On Monday, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, described the situation in the area as “difficult” but still “under control.”

The Russian Defense Ministry has not reported on any major Ukrainian offensives in the Artyomovsk area.

Russian forces have repelled a renewed large-scale attack by Ukrainian troops in several parts of Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Tuesday, claiming that Kiev’s armed formations and military units suffered “significant losses.”

“Having suffered heavy losses the day before, the Kiev regime reorganized the remnants of the 23rd and 31st mechanized brigades into separate combined units, which continued the offensive operations close to Novodarovka and Levadnoye,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov. 

The renewed offensive mainly focused on the village of Vremevka in Donetsk Region, but was stopped by missile, artillery and heavy rocket- propelled flamethrower strikes, according to Konashenkov.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ total losses in south Donetsk direction were over 1,500 servicemen, 28 tanks, including eight German-made Leopard tanks and three French-manufactured AMX-10 wheeled tanks, as well as 109 other armored fighting vehicles,” the Russian military spokesman said.

It was unclear if the tally included the losses from Sunday’s botched attack, which was described as “large-scale” yet “unsuccessful” by the Russian military. In that attempt alone, Kiev lost more than 250 service members, 16 tanks, three infantry vehicles, and 21 armored vehicles, according to the ministry.

Some videos circulated by military bloggers on Telegram did show what appears to be several abandoned French AMX-10 light tanks, but did not include visual confirmation of the German-made Leopards lost in battle.

The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to release footage of the latest strikes on Ukrainian military vehicles. On Monday, it published a video of Ukrainian heavy equipment, supplied by the Western nations, being destroyed by Russian strikes the day before.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar confirmed that Kiev’s forces were moving to “offensive actions” in some areas, but provided no comment on the failed attacks and claimed that Moscow’s talk about the Kiev’s “counteroffensive” blunders was an attempt to to “divert attention” from its own alleged failures.