Russian Ministry of Defense reportedOn May 11, the Ukrainian army went on the offensive in the direction of Soledar along the entire line of contact (more than 95 km).
“The units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched 26 attacks, in which more than 1000 soldiers, up to 40 tanks, as well as other military and special equipment were involved,” said Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the division.
According to him, all attacks were repelled. “Breakthroughs were not allowed in the defense of the Russian troops,” Konashenkov said. According to the Ministry of Defense, more than 540 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, eight tanks and more than 20 other equipment were hit.
The conflict also continued in the western part of Bakhmut (Artemovsk), where units of the Air Force “repressed the attempts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to attack the flanks.” Russian artillery performed 64 missions in the area and planes took off nine times.
“Attacks with operational-tactical and army aviation, artillery fire from the Southern Group of Forces hit the enemy units in the settlements of Chasov Yar and Bogdanovka,” Konashenkov said.
According to a representative of the department, soldiers of the 4th and 200th motorized rifle brigades, army aviation teams and other units of the Russian armed forces were involved in repelling the attacks of the Ukrainian army.
At the same time, the department announced a change in the positions of the Russian armed forces north of Bakhmut.
“In order to increase the stability of the defense, Russian troops occupied the line, taking into account the favorable conditions of the Berkhovsky reservoir,” the ministry said.
In total, in the Donetsk direction, Ukraine lost about 900 soldiers killed and wounded, as well as more than 30 armored vehicles, seven vehicles, a British-made L-118 howitzer and two D-30 howitzers, according to the Ministry of Defense. . In addition, the Russian army shot down a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet near the town of Chasov Yar.
Situation in other directions
The agency also reported that during the night two sabotage and reconnaissance groups were liquidated in the LPR, and in the Zaporozhye region the army destroyed the fuel tank of the Ukrainian army.
“In the Krasnolimansky direction … a defeat was inflicted on the manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Torskoye enclave,” said a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to him, the Ukrainian army lost more than 75 soldiers.
The Russian army destroyed the AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar station near the village of Borovaya in the Kharkov region, and the Ukrainian Zoopark-1 reconnaissance and fire control radar complex in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
According to Konashenkov, in one day, Russian troops struck 72 artillery units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, military personnel and military equipment at firing positions in 102 districts.
Counterattack reports
On May 11, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, and Russian war correspondents reported on the activation of the contact line, as well as the offensive actions of the Ukrainian army.
Thus, the military commander Alexander Simonov claimed that “the breakthrough of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was successful” in the Bogdanovka district near Bakhmut. In response, the RT channel reported that “information has come from the Kherson region about the density of small boats on the right bank of the Dnieper” (later the channel deleted this message).
Military correspondent Semyon Pegov claimed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked near Mayorsk (the village is located on the northern outskirts of Gorlovka), but the attack was repelled. He also gave information about “local achievements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”.
Prigozhin said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “insincere” when talking about the need to prepare for a counterattack. According to him, the Ukrainian army was successful in the attack on some flanks near Bakhmut. On May 12, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Zelensky announced that it was advancing in the direction of Bakhmut.
Local authorities in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as the Russian Ministry of Defense, previously denied information about the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense added that “active operations were not carried out” in the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kupyansk directions, and fighting continued in the Bakhmut region. The Kremlin refused to comment on the messages from military correspondents, directing the question to the Ministry of Defense.