[1/2] Students of the school for drone pilots Dronarium Academy practice during a lesson, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location, Ukraine, June 30, 2023. REUTERS/Alina SmutkoJune 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine has been publicly cautious in counting gains in a counteroffensive it launched this month to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces, and on Friday its president and a U.S. general acknowledged that progress is measured in blood. In real war, real people die. After pushing Russian forces out of northern regions last year, Ukraine took steps to tighten the defense of its border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia. But at the end of the day, Ukrainian soldiers are assaulting through minefields and into trenches" against Russia's much larger army.

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Persons: Alina Smutko, Mark Milley, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Zelenskiy, Hanna Maliar, RTVE, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin's Wagner, Milley, Olena Harmash, Michael Martina, Elaine Monaghan, Grant McCool Organizations: Dronarium Academy, REUTERS, National Press Club, Reuters, NATO, Kyiv, U.S, Russian, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, U.S, Washington, Russia, Lithuania, Spanish, Kyiv, Spain, Belarus, Asipovichi, Minsk, Russian