Ukraine celebrates counterattack, Russia retaliates Russia appears to be on the defensive as Ukraine slowly but surely gains ground.Russian forces lost territory on all fronts during the 28th week of war, as a counteroffensive spread from the southern Kherson region to the eastern and northern fronts of the country, demonstrating Ukraine’s ongoing ability to seize the initiative.Russian defence ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said Russian forces thwarted an overnight attempt on September 2-3 to land 250 Ukrainian special forces troops on 42 boats in Enerhodar, neighbouring the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, from across the river.Maxim Alyukov, a postdoctoral fellow at King’s Russia Institute, led a quantitative study of Russian television and social media coverage of the war to find that the number of television stories on Ukraine has decreased by half compared with February and March.Alyukov told Al Jazeera, “It’s back to normal – back to a pre-war style of reporting, with a balance of propaganda and entertainment … because if you lose [viewers], you lose control of them.” Alyukov also found that mention of a key Russian justification for the war –"