Local authorities: two people killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region

Earlier reports suggested Ukraine’s counter-offensive was underway in the area

Two people have been killed in Russian strikes on the town of Orikhiv, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, head of the regional administration Yuri Malashko reported.

“The Rashists [term used to describe supporters of the official Russian government’s policies] struck a private house where a married couple died: a man, 58, and a woman, 54,” he wrote.

Moreover, another man, 77, was injured in the village of Preobrazhenka, Malashko noted.

Orikhiv is located on the axis where the Ukrainian army is engaged in offensive actions. In particular, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar reported about it on 5 June. On 7 June, she said that the Russian army was in the “active defence” mode near Orikhiv.

Russian military bloggers and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels claim that the Ukrainian army was on the offensive in the area. Semyon Pegov, creator of the WarGonzo Telegram channels, reported that Ukrainian forces conducted a mass-scale night attack on the Orikhiv-Robotyne axis and applied more pressure on the Russian positions in the area with artillery strikes in the morning.

Bild writes that the clashes in the region are not a part of a full-scale offensive but are rather intended to check the Russian defence capabilities. Moreover, these operations can be used to distract the Russian command, the newspaper claims.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Ukrainian army had launched its offensive. Previously, a number of Western media outlets reported that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had begun, such as The Washington Post, CNN, Bild, and others.

Kyiv, however, denies these reports. “When we do launch the counter-offensive, everyone will know about it, everyone will see it,” head of the Ukrainian national security and defence council Oleksiy Danilov said.