Russia said that fierce battles broke out, on Sunday, across 3 sectors on the front line in Ukraine, the day after it hosted an African peace mission that did not succeed in its mission, whether in Moscow or Kiev.
An official, appointed by Russia, said that Ukraine had recaptured the village of Piatykhatky in the Zaporizhia region in the south of the country, and that its forces were holed up there, while they were under Russian artillery fire.
"The enemy's 'wave-like' offensives yielded results, despite enormous losses," said the official, Vladimir Rogov, via the Telegram app.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not mention the village of Piatykhatky in its daily briefing, in which it said its forces had repulsed Ukrainian attacks in three sectors of the 1,000-kilometre frontline.
A separate statement from Russia's Vostok Group of Forces said Ukraine had not succeeded in capturing the village.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports from the battlefield.
There was no comment from Ukraine, which last week said it had recaptured another nearby village, Lubkov, and a string of villages to its east in the Donetsk region, as it launched its long-awaited counter-offensive.
Ukrainian officials enforce a media blackout to bolster operational security, but say Russia suffered far greater losses than Ukrainian forces in its latest offensive.
An official in the region said that Ukrainian forces destroyed a large depot of Russian ammunition in the occupied Kherson region, as part of Kiev's weeks-long efforts to wreak havoc on Russian supply lines.
British military intelligence said that the fierce fighting, during the past days, focused on Zaporizhia, western Donetsk and the vicinity of Bakhmut, which was controlled by Russian mercenaries last month, after a battle that was the longest during this war.
"In all these areas, Ukraine continues to pursue offensive operations and has made small advances," it's added on Twitter.
According to the assessment of British military intelligence, Russian defensive operations were "relatively effective in the south", with both sides suffering heavy losses.
A few days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rarely comments on the course of the war, made two unusually detailed comments in which he mocked the Ukrainian offensive and said Kiev's forces had "no chance" despite being newly equipped with Western tanks.
His comments appeared aimed at reassuring the Russians at this crucial juncture, nearly 16 months into the conflict, as Ukraine seeks to end a months-long stalemate and reclaim the 18 percent of its territory still under Russian control.
African peace mission failure in Moscow & Kyiv
During talks in St. Petersburg on Saturday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa presented Putin with a 10-point peace initiative from seven African countries, telling him it was time for Russia and Ukraine to start negotiations to end the war.
Putin responded by launching a series of familiar accusations that have been denied by Ukraine and the West, and said that it was Kiev, not Moscow, that refused to hold the talks. He thanked the Russian President Ramaphosa for his "noble mission".
Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin had expressed interest in the plan, but that it was "difficult to implement".
A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the African delegation, which visited Kiev for the first time since the war began for separate, direct talks on the peace initiative, that allowing negotiations now would only lead to "freezing the war" and continuing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
The yawning gulf between the two sides was further underlined when Putin used a leading economic forum on Friday to personally insult Zelensky and to reaffirm the "demilitarization" goals of Ukraine he declared on the first day of the war.
Kiev and the West reject those goals, describing them as a false pretext for the invasion.
However, Ramaphosa sought to project a positive image of the visit to Ukraine and Russia, writing on Twitter Sunday that "the African Peace Initiative has had an impact and its ultimate success will be measured by its objective, which is to stop the war."
He added that African leaders will continue to talk to both Putin and Zelensky, and will brief UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on their efforts so far.
Destruction for months
The war destroyed Ukrainian villages and cities, forced millions to leave their homes, inflicted heavy human losses among Russian and Ukrainian forces that were not disclosed, as well as killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians.
The two sides exchanged accusations of blowing up a huge dam in Ukraine, on the sixth of June, and flooding large areas of the war zone.
In the Russian-controlled town of Hola Bristan, Reuters filmed volunteers hauling water after homes were flooded on Saturday, and distributing bread and drinking water.
"Not one person in the world will be punished for this torture we're going through, for this terrible catastrophe," said Tamara, 78, a retired nurse.
"That's what frustrates me. That no one will be punished for that. And I'd like it if at least one person was put (on trial) and punished for everything. So the whole world could see." she added.
