1 Instute for the Study of War and AEI’s Crical Threats Project 2023
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 5, 2023
Riley Bailey, Karolina Hird, Kateryna Stepanenko, Nicole Wolkov,
and Fredrick W. Kagan
June 5, 2023, 8pm 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.
Click here to access ISW’s archive of interactive time-lapse maps of the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. These maps complement the static control-of-terrain map that
ISW produces daily by showing a dynamic frontline. ISW will update this time-lapse
map archive monthly.
Note: The data cutoff for this product was 2pm ET on June 5. ISW will cover
subsequent reports in the June 6 Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are signaling the start of the Ukrainian
counteroffensive. ISW offers no assessment of these signals at this time. The Russian
Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed on June 5 that Ukrainian forces conducted a “large-scale
offensive” across five sectors of the frontline in southwestern Donetsk Oblast on June 4.[1] The
Russian MoD claimed that Russian forces repelled all Ukrainian attacks and assigned Chief of the
Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov to oversee the southwestern Donetsk
frontline.[2] Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar noted on June 5 that Ukrainian forces
are “transferring to offensive actions” in some unspecified areas of the front.[3] Malyar added that
Russian sources are actively spreading information about the Ukrainian counteroffensive to deflect
attention from Russian losses in the Bakhmut direction. The Russian MoD’s claims that Russian
forces immediately repelled Ukrainian counteroffensives are consistent with previous false Russian
claims made during past counteroffensives. Ukrainian forces are likely making limited gains despite
Russian denials. ISW will not attempt to assess at this time whether or not these gains are
part of broader counter-offensive operations. ISW observed an increase in combat activity in
different sectors of the frontline but will not speculate about the intent, weight, or focus of Ukrainian
counteroffensives operations.[4] A successful counteroffensive operation may take days, weeks, or
even months before its outcome becomes fully clear, during which time Russian sources may falsely
claim to have defeated it.
Ukrainian forces made limited advances north and southwest of Bakhmut on June
5. Malyar reported that Ukrainian forces are conducting offensive operations on the eastern front in
the Bakhmut area and advanced 200 to 1,600 meters in the direction of Orikhovo-Vasylivka (11km
northwest of Bakhmut), and 100 to 700 meters near Ivanivske (6km west of Bakhmut) and
Klishchiivka (7km southwest of Bakhmut).[5] Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces Spokesperson
Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty reported that mechanized Ukrainian forces also advanced from 300 meters
to one kilometer in the direction of Zaliznyanske (13km north of Bakhmut) and Bohdanivka (8km
northwest of Bakhmut).[6] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Ukrainian forces in
the Bakhmut direction for “moving forward” in their areas of responsibility on June 5.[7] Wagner
Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that Ukrainian forces captured an unspecified part of
