The Defense Forces are having success in the area of Klishchiivka in the Bakhmut direction

The Defense Forces are successful as a result of the offensive in the area of Klishchiivka in the direction of Bakhmut. This was reported by the spokesman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Kovalev on the morning of July 5.

To the north and south of the city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops continue to pressurize the Russians and drive them out of the captured lines.

"In the Klishchiivka area, they have partial success, they are taking hold of the boundaries they have reached," Andriy Kovalev noted.

Also, the Defense Forces of Ukraine continue to hold back the advance of Russian troops in the Lyman, Avdiivka, and Maryinka directions.

As for Russian losses, during the day of July 4, the Defense Forces destroyed 670 invaders (231,700 since the beginning of the war), 36 artillery systems, 9 armored combat vehicles and 12 drones.

• The Ukrainian counteroffensive continues. The Defense Forces have already liberated eight settlements in the south: Rivnopil, Pyatikhatky, Lobkove, Levadne, Novodarivka, Neskuchne, Storozheve, Makarivka and Blahodatne, and also occupied several positions near Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region, which have been under occupation since 2014. As of July 3, the liberated area in the south is 158.4 square kilometers.
• On June 24, the Ministry of Defense officially announced the beginning of the offensive in the east in several directions at the same time — in the direction of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut, Bohdanivka, Yahidne, Klishchiivka, and Kurdyumivka.
• On June 21, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that progress in the counteroffensive is "slower than we would like." According to him, the counteroffensive is not easy because the Russians mined 200 000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that he was annoyed when they said that the counteroffensive started more slowly than expected. The troops advance every day, even if it is only 500 meters.