Ukraine war: Russia claims it stopped 'large scale' Ukrainian military offensive

Russia says it has thwarted a large Ukrainian attack in the eastern province of Donetsk, although it's not clear if this is the start of a long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The Ministry of Defence in Moscow released a rare early morning video saying its forced had pushed back a "large scale" Ukrainian assault on Sunday at five points in southern Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia illegally annexed last autumn.

"The enemy’s goal was to break through our defenses in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Igor Konashenkov. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success."

Konashenkov claimed 250 Ukrainian personnel were killed, and 16 Ukrainian tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles were destroyed.

There is no way to verify those Kremlin claims. 

Ukraine has so far not commented, but often waits until the completion of its military operations to confirm its actions, imposing news blackouts in the interim. It was unclear why the Russian Defense Ministry waited until Monday morning to announce the attack, which it said started Sunday morning.

For months, Ukrainian officials have spoken of plans to launch a spring counteroffensive to reclaim territory Russia has occupied since launching a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, as well as the Crimean Peninsula it seized in 2014. 

But they’ve given mixed signals about what would constitute a counteroffensive -- preliminary, limited attacks to weaken Russian forces and military facilities or a full-fledged simultaneous assault across the entire 1,100-kilometre front line. 

A social media campaign launched on Sunday urged silence about the subject of military planning. 

"Plan