Ukraine claims recapture of fourth village in eastern Donetsk as counteroffensive rolls on
Ukraine has claimed their troops have retaken another southeastern village from Russian forces, among the first and small successes in stepped-up President Zelenskyy's counteroffensive actions.
The country's military officials announced the news as deputy defense minister Hannah Maliar wrote on Telegram that Ukraine's flag was again flying over the village of Storozhov.
She also predicted the liberation of “all Ukrainian land” would be the final outcome.
A day earlier, Ukrainian officials said three other small villages clustered together south of the town of Velika Novosilke in the eastern Donetsk region had been liberated.
The villages are located in the so-called “Vremivka ledge,” a section of the front line where the Russian-controlled area protrudes into territory held by Ukraine.
The area has become one of several epicenters of intense fighting.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not confirmed the Russian retreat from the villages, but some military bloggers have acknowledged the loss of Russian control over them.
Russian authorities, meanwhile, have said their troops have largely held their ground along the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) arc of front line along southern and eastern Ukraine.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “counteroffensive, defensive actions are taking place" without specifying it was an all-out counteroffensive, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that the counteroffensive had started - and Ukrainian forces were taking “significant losses.”
The reported Ukrainian advance comes as authorities on both sides of the active front line along the Dnipro River in the southern Kherson region pressed on with rescue and relocation efforts for civilians driven from their homes by flooding from the breach of the Kakhovka dam last week.
On Sunday, a local official said three people were killed when Moscow’s troops opened fire at a boat evacuating people from Russian-occupied areas.
President Zelenskyy also said envoys from the International Criminal Court have visited the region to investigate the disaster, which has driven thousands from their homes, and left at least 14 people dead.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces, which controlled the area around the dam, of deliberately destroying it, but Russian officials have blamed Ukrainian shelling for its destruction.
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