TOP HEADLINES

• Russia said on Monday its forces had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive at five points along the front in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk and killed hundreds of troops while Ukraine accused Moscow of spreading lies.

• Belgium will ask Ukraine for clarification on reports that rifles made in Belgium had been used by pro-Ukrainian forces to fight Russian troops inside Russia's western border, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday.

• Russia said on Monday it began holding naval drills in the Baltic Sea, one day after NATO member states kicked off their annual Baltic drills. On the NATO side, 6,000 personnel, 50 ships and more than 45 aircraft are taking part, with Finland participating for the first time as an alliance member, the United States Navy said.

• Two drones fell on a highway in Russia's Kaluga region that borders with the Moscow region to its north, with the local governor saying on Monday there was no detonation of explosives.

• The commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces continued "moving forward" near Bakhmut. Syrskyi said that Ukrainian forces were successful in destroying a Russian position near the city.

• Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retaken part of the settlement of Berkhivka, north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, calling it a "disgrace."

IN DEPTH

Ukraine dismisses Russian claims

Ukraine has dismissed claims by Russia that it had killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops in a large-scale offensive on Sunday. 

It was not immediately clear whether or not the attack represented the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive which Kyiv has been promising for months to drive out Russian forces after the invasion of February 2022. 

Russia's defense ministry said Ukraine had attacked on Sunday morning with six mechanized and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory. 

"On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction," the defence ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram at 1:30 a.m. Moscow time (2230 GMT). 

"The enemy's goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front," it said. "The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success." 

Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications did not address the Russian statement directly but said, without providing evidence, that Russia would seek to spread lies.

"To demoralize Ukrainians and mislead the community (including their own population), Russian propagandists will spread false information about the counteroffensive, its directions, and the losses of the Ukrainian army," it said.

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