Putin claims Russia is heading off Ukraine's counteroffensive, but little evidence to show advance is failing

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had certainly begun their expected counteroffensive withintense fighting in Ukraine, but that every attempted advance had failed, at a heavy cost in casualties.

Russia reported heavy fighting along the front in southern Ukraine on Friday, where bloggers described the first sightings of German and U.S. armour, signalingUkraine's long-anticipated counteroffensivewas underway.

With virtually no independent reporting from the front lines and Kyiv saying little, it was impossible to assess whether Ukraine was penetrating Russian defences.

"We can state for sure that this offensive has begun," Putin said in Sochi. "Ukrainian troops did not achieve their goals in any sector."

Kyiv has declined to challenge Putin's narrative, saying merely that the start of the counteroffensive will not be announced.

Russia reports intense battles

The counteroffensive is ultimately expected to involve thousands of Ukrainian troops trained and equipped by the West.

Russiasays it has repelled attacks since the start of the week, but according toKyiv, Ukraine'smain effort has yet to begin.

Moscow and pro-war Russian bloggers reported intense battles on Friday on the Zaporizhzhia front near the city of Orikhiv, around the mid-point of the "land bridge" linking Russia to the Crimea peninsula, seen as one of Ukraine's likeliest targets.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops have for months been digging in along a front line stretching around1,000 km, bracing for an attack that's expected to try to cut Russia's so-called land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Counteroffensive and Western support

The Russian defence ministry said that Ukraine was continuing"attempts to conduct offensive operations in the southern Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions."

It said its troops had repelled two Ukrainian assaults south of Orikhiv and four near Velyka Novosilka further east, where it said Ukraine's attack force included two battalions of troops supported by tanks.

Kyiv has said almost nothing about the southern front, where it is widely expected to attempt its main push towardthe coast.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said only that battles forVelyka Novosilka were continuing and Russian troops were mounting "active defence" at Orikhiv.

In the east, Ukraine has reported gains of territory around Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last month after nearly a year of the deadliest ground combat in Europe since the Second World War.Ukraine generally bars journalists from reaching its side of front lines during offensive operations.

The fate of the counteroffensive, supported by tens of billions of dollars in Western weapons, is likely to influence the shape of future Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.

WATCH|Fierce combat escalates in Ukraine'seast and south:

Fighting across Ukraine ramps up as talk of counteroffensive grows

1 year ago

Duration 1:58

Fierce combat is escalating in the east and south as Ukrainian forces move into more offensive positions. Ukraine hasnt confirmed if its expected counteroffensive against Russian forces has officially begun, but officials admit the country will need more Western military aid to win the war.

Russia to deploy tactical nuclear weapons

Putin also said Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after special storage facilities are ready on July 7-8. It would beMoscow's first move of such bombs outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

More than 15 months into the war, Putin says the U.S.and Western allies are pumping arms into Ukraine as part of an expanding proxy war aimed at bringing Russia to its knees.

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Putinannounced in March thathe wanted to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, an apparent warning to the U.S.-led NATO military alliance over its support for Ukraine.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield. They have a relatively short range and a much lower yield than long-range strategic nuclear missiles that can destroycities.

Leading NATO countries say they will support Ukraine and help it defend itself for as long as it takes from what Kyiv casts as an imperial-style land grab by Russia that threatens the survival of the Ukrainian state.

Nuclear moves being closely watched

"Everything is going according to plan," Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko when discussing the planned nuclear deploymentat the Russian leader's Black Sea summer retreat in Sochi.

"Preparation of the relevant facilities ends on July 7-8, and we will immediately begin activities related to the deployment of appropriate types of weapons on your territory," Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks.

Lukashenko said: "Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyysays Ukraine will not rest until allRussian soldiers areejected from his country, which he wants to join NATO as soon as possible.

Putin's nuclear move is being watched closely by both the U.S.and its NATO allies in Europe, and by China, which has repeatedly cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict.

Putin, 70, casts the war as a battle for Russia's own survival in the face of what he says is an ever-expanding NATO. He has warned the West that Moscow will not back down.

Dam disaster causes destruction

The initial days of what is believed to beUkraine's counteroffensive have been overshadowedbythe destructionof the Kakhovka dam holding back the Dnipro River.

Thousandshave been forced to evacuate homes flooded in the war zone, vast nature preserves have been wiped out and the destruction to irrigation systems is likely to cripple agriculture across much of southern Ukraine for decades. Kyiv said at least four people had died and 13 were missing.

Ukrainereleased a recording Friday of what it said wasan intercepted phone call in which a Russian soldier confides to another man that a Russian sabotage group had blown the dam up. Moscow says Ukraine sabotaged it.

Western countries say they are still gathering evidence, but they argued that Ukraine would have no reason to inflict such a devastating disaster on itself, especially right as its forces were shifting onto the attack.

Experts have said the structure was in disrepair, which could also have led to its collapse.

Before-and-after images of the area downstream from the dam show the extent of the devastation. Before the dambroke,satellite photos fromMay and early June show greenfieldsand farm roads dotted with trees.

After, only metal roofs and treetops poke above murky water. Greenhouses and homes are almost entirely submerged.