One of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's top aides said Thursday a counteroffensive from Ukraine's armed forces has yet to begin, and that advances made along the front lines in the past week are part of a test to figure out Russia's weaknesses.
"We have not yet launched a counteroffensive as such, and Russia is already saying: 'We have already won, we have already repelled the counteroffensive'," Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the presidential office, said during a live broadcast.
Ukraine began its push to recapture Russian-occupied territory last week. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Wednesday that Kyiv's forces were pushing forward in at least three directions. Ukraine has made advances in the direction of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and in other areas.
Podolyak pointed to remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin this week during a meeting of war correspondents, saying that Ukraine's counteroffensive has been unsuccessful. Putin added that Ukraine had suffered "catastrophic" losses.
"As a person who does not understand the war at all, communicating with propagandists, respectively, who also do not understand the war, he tells them absolutely wild things. He says that, we have already stopped, [Russia is] winning," said Podolyak.
Zelensky's aide said Ukraine is simply testing the front line at the moment.
"[Ukraine's Armed Forces] are gradually moving forward as part of a test, that is, they are looking at where it will be the weakest," said Podolyak.
Maliar said on Telegram on Wednesday that Ukraine had made gains of between 650 and 1,600 feet in sectors of the Bakhmut front in the eastern Donetsk region, and between 980 and 1,150 feet in parts of the Zaporizhzhia direction.
The Ukrainian Tavrisk Group of Forces said troops advancing in the Zaporizhzhia direction were focusing on hitting Russian electronic warfare systems. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said Ukraine's forces are continuing counterattacks on the northwestern, northeastern and southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut.
Podolyak said Ukraine's current goals are to kill as many Russian mobilized troops as possible, and to destroy Russian equipment. "I speak frankly, as much as possible in order to add psychological pressure on the Russian army," he said.
Jack Watling, senior research fellow for land warfare at the U.K.'s Royal United Services Institute, wrote on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military is currently trying to destroy Russia's logistics, command-and-control, reconnaissance and artillery systems.
Ukraine is attempting to get Russia to commit their reserves, and move troops from the third defense line "to bolster sectors under pressure."
"Once these troops are pulled forwards, it will become easier to identify the weak points in the Russian lines, where a breakthrough will not be met by a new screen of repositioned forces," said Watling.
Watling added that Ukraine's troops hope to apply pressure across the front line to "advance through the first line of defences in as much breadth as possible."
"At some point, the Ukrainians will have to decide where to commit their main assault units, and the offensive will enter its decisive phase," he said.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.
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