Putin says the Ukrainian counterattack ‘failed’: Russian agencies

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, declared on Sunday that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had “failed” as he began a two-day meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally.

The two established leaders have not spoken since Lukashenko put an end to the biggest challenge to Putin’s more than two-decade rule—a mutiny by Russian Wagner mercenaries—in Russia last month.

Lukashenko declared, “There is no counteroffensive,” but Putin cut him off, saying, “There is one, but it has failed.”