The assessment was made by Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar on Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported.
Maliar wrote on the Telegram social messaging app: "The enemy's offensive continues in the east, (with) round-the-clock attacks."
She added, as quoted by Reuters: "The situation is tense. But our fighters are not allowing the enemy to achieve their goals and are inflicting very serious losses."
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said that the situation in the eastern Luhansk region remained "difficult,” without mentioning any retreats in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Russia is sending heavy equipment and mobilised troops into the Luhansk province, but Ukrainian troops continue to defend the region, its governor Serhiy Haidai said on Wednesday, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
Earlier in the day, the Russian defence ministry claimed its forces had broken through two fortified lines of Ukraine’s defences on the eastern front of Luhansk, according to news reports.
Moscow said Ukrainian troops had retreated in the face of Russian attacks, but did not say exactly in which part of the region.
Meanwhile, Haidai said Russia’s claim that Ukrainian troops had pulled back “does not correspond to reality.”
The official said, as quoted by The Guardian: “There is a lot of shelling, the aviation is already connected. The attacks are coming from different directions in waves. We see that they are transferring mobilised people (to the front), we also see that there is more (heavy) equipment.”
Russian balloons shot down over Kyiv
Six aerial targets were spotted over the Ukrainian capital Kyiv during an air alert, and most were shot down by air defences, according to the Kyiv military administration, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Kyiv officials said the six Russian balloons may have been carrying corner reflectors and reconnaissance equipment.
They did not specify when the balloons flew over the capital, according to news outlets.
Russia lost more than half of its tanks in Ukraine: UK experts
Russia has likely lost more than 2,000 tanks during its invasion of Ukraine, more than half of its operational tank fleet, the International Institute for Strategic Studies has estimated.
According to the London-based think tank, the loss of the machines is forcing the Kremlin to rely on its stores of older weapons even as it seeks to boost industrial output, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The institute’s estimates suggest that Russia might have lost 50 percent of modern tanks such as the T-72B3 and T-72B3M, while its stocks of T-80BV/U tanks have been depleted by two-thirds, the WSJ said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s tank numbers are estimated to have increased because of the machines captured from Russian troops as well as deliveries of Soviet-era tanks from its Western allies, news outlets reported.
Allies pledge EUR 225 million in military hardware for Ukraine
Ukraine will receive a package of support worth around EUR 225 million from the UK and other European nations for military equipment, including spare parts for tanks and artillery ammunition, the government in London has said.
The UK has teamed up with the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Lithuania to send an initial package of support to Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defence announced, as reported by The Guardian.
Thursday is day 358 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal