1 Institute for the Study of War & AEI’s Critical Threats Project 2022
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment
Karolina Hird, Mason Clark, and George Barros
June 6, 5:15 pm ET
Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is
updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Ukrainian forces continued to conduct limited and localized but successful
counterattacks against Russian positions throughout Ukraine on June 5, including
retaking large areas of Severodonetsk—the city in Luhansk Oblast the Kremlin has
concentrated the majority of its forces on capturing. A Russian Telegram channel claimed that
Ukrainian troops launched a counterattack north of Kharkiv City, indicating that Ukrainian forces
continue to pressure Russian defensive lines near the Russian border.
Ukrainian forces are likely
seeking to leverage the continued Russian focus on Severodonetsk to conduct counterattacks on other
axes of advance. Even as Russian forces continue to pour equipment and troops into the Severodonetsk-
Lysychansk area, Ukrainian forces have conducted a successful counterattack in Severodonetsk in the
last 48 hours and pushed Russian troops back to the eastern outskirts of the city and out of southern
settlements.
Ukrainian counteroffensive pressure will likely continue to draw the attention of Russian
forces to Luhansk Oblast and therefore leave vulnerabilities in Russian defensive efforts in Kharkiv
Oblast and along the Southern Axis. The ability of Ukrainian forces to successfully counterattack in
Severodonetsk, the Kremlin’s current priority area of operations, further indicates the declining combat
power of Russian forces in Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces reportedly killed Russian Major General Roman Kutuzov on June 5.
Russian Telegram channels reported that Kutuzov was killed near Mykolaivka, Luhansk Oblast (near
Popasna) on June 5.
Kutuzov likely commanded the Donetsk People’s Republic’s 1st Army Corps at the
time of his death, though ISW cannot confirm his exact position.
Some sources reported that Kutuzov
commanded the 5th Combined Arms Army (CAA) at the time of his death, but we assess this is likely
incorrect—Kutuzov served as acting commander of the 5th CAA from 2017 to 2019, and Major General
Alexei Vladimirovich Podilov currently commands the 5th CAA.
High-level Russian commanders have
taken remarkably high losses during combat in Ukraine, and will likely continue to do so as the Russian
command continues to deploy military leadership directly to the frontline. Kutuzov’s death has not yet
been confirmed but would be at least the seventh death of a general in Ukraine since the beginning of
the war.
Russian forces conducted their first missile strike against Kyiv in over a month on June
5. Advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Vadym Denysenko stated that Russian forces fired five
X-22 cruise missiles from a Tu-95 aircraft at Kyiv from the direction of the Caspian Sea that hit the
Darnytsia Rail Car Repair Plant on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that
this strike targeted T-72 tanks supplied to Ukraine by other Eastern European countries, but images of
the target area confirm that the missiles hit the Darnytsia plant.
It is unclear if Russian forces intended
to strike foreign-provided Ukrainian tanks and missed, or if the Kremlin is attempting to obfuscate its
intended target. This attack on Kyiv likely indicates that Russian forces are continuing to target
Ukrainian infrastructure in non-critical areas of Ukraine in order to disrupt Ukrainian logistics as
Russian forces take considerable losses in Donbas.
Russian military bloggers continued to reckon with overarching struggles in Russian
force generation on June 5. Russian milblogger Alexander Khodakovsky accused “screamers in the
guise of patriots” of hypocritically calling for general mobilization while at the same time discrediting
the Russian military leadership and driving away those who would voluntarily take up arms for Russia.
