Amid continuing offensive operations by Ukraine, the country's blue and yellow flag and dead Russian soldiers on the street of a village of Neskuchne back Kyiv’s biggest advance against Moscow in seven months, as reported by Reuters. However, Russia has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gain and President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that now he sees no need for a new mobilisation of fighting men to confront the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched last week, reported Reuters.
"There is no such need today," Putin told a televised meeting of Russian war correspondents and military bloggers when asked about another mobilisation, as quoted by Reuters. However, he added that all depended on what Russia wanted to accomplish through its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
Putin also denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claims of early success in Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive. As per the Guaridan's report, the President admitted Kyiv’s troops have regained some territory and that Russia had lost 54 tanks in the opening assaults.
In a televised meeting with military bloggers,Putin said that his forces had taken losses but emphasised that Ukraine had lost 25 percent to 30 percent of its foreign-supplied military vehicles including 160 tanks, the report further said.
The troops of both countries continue to engage in severe battles even after over 15 months since Putin sent his forces across Ukrainian cities. Russian forces tried and failed to capture Kyiv in the hours and days after the invasion began on Feb. 24 last year.
Reuters reported that not a single resident could be found in Neskuchne, one of a cluster of settlements on the Mokry Yali river that Ukraine claims to have captured. This is a first since their counteroffensive began southwards into Russian-held territory.
"Three days ago the Russian forces were still here. We chased them out of Neskuchne. Glory to Ukraine," a member of a Ukrainian territorial defence unit told Reuters.
The agency reported that at least three dead Russian soldiers were seen lying in the street, including one whose fly-blown body lay by an abandoned Russian military vehicle.
Meanwhile on Tuesday once again, Putin threatened to withdraw Russia from the Black Sea grain deal, designed to ease a global food crisis worsened by the invasion. He accused the West of cheating Moscow. Notably, Russia and Ukraine are both major agricultural exporters.
"We are thinking about getting out of this grain deal now," Putin told the meeting, quoted Reuters. "Unfortunately, we were once again cheated - nothing was done in terms of liberalising the supply of our grain to foreign markets," he added.
The deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey is set to expire on July 17 unless Russia agrees to extend it.