In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, President Volodymyr Zelensky officially declared that Ukraine was ready to launch a counteroffensive. At the same time, he admitted that Russia still had air superiority, which could mean high personnel losses should additional support with Patriot systems be not available.

Jun. 4 brought reports of increased Ukrainian activity on five front sections in the Donetsk region, which the Russian Defence Ministry hastily dubbed a "large-scale offensive." Although the Russian side claimed that it had inflicted heavy losses on the Ukrainians in terms of personnel and equipment, independent sources pointed rather to local tactical successes of Ukrainian forces in the area of Rivnopil and Novodarivka. In the Belgorod region, partisans of the Russian Volunteer Corps captured more prisoners and tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting with Governor Gladkov to exchange them. At the same time, British intelligence summarized May as the month of the most intensive use of Iranian drones (over 300 units), which was aimed at draining Ukrainian stocks of advanced anti-aircraft missiles before the expected ground strike. 

Jun. 5 was marked by a sharp intensification of fighting in many sections of the front, especially in the Bakhmut area, where the Ukrainian group "Khortytsya" made territorial advances, pushing regular Russian troops into the defensive. Deputy Minister Hanna Malar confirmed the movement of troops by several hundred meters towards Klishchiivka and Orikhov-Vasylivka, which provoked a nervous reaction from Yevgeny Prigozhin, who accused the army of losing part of Berchivka. Russian propaganda suffered a major blunder that day. The Ministry of Defence released a video purportedly showing the destruction of German Leopard tanks, which was quickly exposed by Russian war bloggers as shelling of American John Deere combine harvesters working in the fields. In Russia's border regions, a hacker attack took place on radio stations that broadcast Putin's false speech about the introduction of martial law and general mobilization, which deepened the information chaos within the Russian Federation.

Jun. 6 went down in the history of the war as one of the most tragic due to the deliberate destruction of the dam in Nova Kakhovka. In the early morning hours, explosives detonated inside the engine room, leading to a complete breach of the dam and an uncontrolled leak of eighteen billion cubic meters of water from the Kakhovka reservoir. The disaster caused the flooding of about a hundred towns, including parts of Kherson, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people on both sides of the Dnieper River. While Ukraine blamed for this act of terror the 205th Motorized Rifle Brigade of Russia, the Russian side tried unsuccessfully to shift the blame to the Ukrainian shelling. 

On Jun. 7, the situation around Bakhmut changed dramatically when Deputy Minister Hanna Malar officially announced the transition of Ukrainian troops from defensive to offensive operations. Units commanded by General Oleksandr Syrsky advanced on the city's flanks, seeking to capture strategic heights and establish fire control over supply routes. Meanwhile, in the south, reports began to arrive about the losses the flood had inflicted on the Russian army itself: the water washed away the first lines of fortifications and minefields, forcing airborne units into a chaotic withdrawal from Hola Prystan and Oleshky. The UK Ministry of Defence stressed that despite the complex operational situation, Ukraine maintained the initiative in most sectors, while Russian counter-attack attempts in the Vesele area ended in failure.

On Jun. 8, numerous international sources and military analysts confirmed the launch of the long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south of the country. The main attacks, conducted by brigades operating Western equipment, were concentrated in the Zaporizhzhia region, especially around Orikhiv and Tokmak. Extremely intense fighting took place there, in which the participation of German Leopard 2A4 tanks was confirmed for the first time. Although American officials admitted that Ukrainians suffered losses in the first hours of breaking through Russian defence lines, they also emphasized that these losses did not affect the overall operation. In the background of the war, Russia controversially transferred a group of Ukrainian prisoners of Hungarian origin to Hungary, which took place without the knowledge or consent of the authorities in Kyiv.

In the following days, Ukrainian offensive operations gained momentum on at least four sections of the front, and spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty reported another advance of troops near Bakhmut by more than a kilometre. In the south, Ukrainian forces continued their offensive towards the Sea of Azov, seeking to cut the Russian land corridor, forcing President Putin to publicly acknowledge that the Ukrainian offensive had indeed begun. In response, the Russians carried out airstrikes on Zviahel and Uman, using Shahed drones and cruise missiles, while in the areas flooded after the dam collapse, they introduced drastic restrictions, allowing evacuation only to people with Russian passports. A new $2 billion aid package from the US, including Patriot and Hawk systems, was a significant boost for Kyiv, which was crucial for protecting the attacking forces from Russian aircraft.

During a surprise visit by the Canadian Prime Minister to Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky finally confirmed the conduct of counter-offensive operations, as he received assurances of new financial and military support from Ottawa. On the front, Ukrainian units took advantage of the rotation of Russian units near Bakhmut for further local counterattacks, moving the front line by almost one and a half kilometres. The situation within the Russian army began to deteriorate under the stress of combat. The Ukrainian General Staff reported mass cases of sabotage and disobedience of orders by mobilized soldiers, sent by the command, as a form of punishment, to assault units treated as "cannon fodder".  Illustrative photo/AI generated