Def Min Claims Ukraine Counteroffensive Repelled

According to state-media, Russian Defence Ministry has claimed that Ukrainian forces launched a broad offensive towards the direction of the town of Soledar to the north east of the heavily-contested city of Bakhmut in the Donbas. Russia claims that 26 attacks were launched involving over 1,000 troops and up to 40 tanks, also claiming that the offensive was repelled. There has been no confirmation of a counteroffensive from the Ukrainian gov't nor from Kyiv's western allies.

• These claims come after comments from Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, criticised the Russian army for supposedly fleeing the battlefield around the city of Bakhmut. On 11 May, Prigozhin stating that, "The situation on the flanks is developing according to the worst predicted scenario. All the territories that were taken with the blood and lives of our comrades [...] are now being thrown away practically without a fight by those who should be holding our flanks."
• Prigozhin's increasingly virulent and public attacks on the Russian army, its leaders in the form of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and even veiled criticism of President Vladimir Putin, risks a major schism within the two main forces carrying out the invasion of Ukraine: the army and the Wagner group.
• Putin finds himself in a difficult situation, with the Wagner head calling out key figures in the Russian gov't and criticising the army, but Wagner acts as a key counterweight to the power of the military and its leaders, who Putin could see as a potential threat to his leadership position.

Source: Institute for the Study of War