Washington confirms Ukraine's counteroffensive but refrains from commenting

The US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby says Washington is going to refrain from providing an "armchair assessment" of Ukraine's counter-offensive operation.

"Look, offensive operations — combat is happening.  There’s no question about that. But it’s up to President Zelenskyy to characterize it, not us.  And it’s certainly going to be up to the Ukrainian Armed Forces to speak to the give-and-take on any given day.  It — it’s war.  And it has already proven violent," Kirby said in a White House press briefing on June 12.

He added that the US is going to stay focused on making sure that Ukraine can succeed on the battlefield. 

"You saw a package of assistance coming through the USAI program, announced at the end of the week.  I think very, very soon, you’re going to see some additional drawdown packages coming from the United States.  It won’t surprise you that the kinds of things you’ll see us continue to give Ukraine are the kinds of things that we know they need in this particular fight," Kirby concluded.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have retaken seven villages spanning 90 square kilometres from Russian forces in the past week, the deputy defence minister said on June 13 as the early stages of Kyiv’s counteroffensive notched small successes.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on the Telegram app that the Ukrainian flag was again flying over the village of Storozhov, in the eastern Donetsk province, and that her troops had also retaken three other nearby small villages and three in neighbouring Zaporizhzhia province.

“The battles are tough, but our movement is there, and that is very important,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, AP reports.

He added that rainy weather is challenging his troops and that he’s discussed with his military commanders “which points of the front we need to strengthen and what actions we can take to break more Russian positions.”