Kyiv dismisses Russian reports of Ukrainian counteroffensive

KYIV (Reuters) - Russian reports that Ukraine has begun a counteroffensive are meant to distract attention from losses Russian forces are taking around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.

Moscow said it had thwarted a major Ukrainian assault involving six mechanised and two tank battalions in the south of Ukraine's Donetsk region.

In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces were "shifting to offensive actions" in some areas along the front line but dismissed suggestions that this was part of a major operation.

"Why are the Russians actively releasing information about a counteroffensive? Because they need to divert attention from the defeat in the Bakhmut direction," she wrote.

Russia's private Wagner militia captured Bakhmut last month after the longest battle of the war and handed its positions there to regular Russian troops.

Since then, Ukraine has continued to attack areas north and south of the city. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that Kyiv's troops had retaken part of a village near the ruined city.

Maliar said the area around Bakhmut remained the "epicentre" of fighting and that the Ukrainian military was "moving along a fairly wide front".

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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