Ukraine on Monday claimed the recapture of the fourth village in the eastern Donetsk region since it launched a counteroffensive in three sectors of the front line, the Ukrainian military announced.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram social network that the Ukrainian flag was raised again in the town of Storozhov.
This announcement comes a day after the Ukrainian authorities advanced in the recapture of three other villages south of the town of Velika Novosilke, in the eastern region of Donetsk.
This is the first liberation of occupied territories since the start of the Ukrainian offensive a week ago, and comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky first admitted that the counter-offensive was underway.
On Saturday, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, admitted the existence of “counteroffensive actions” by his army on the battlefront without clarifying, however, whether it is the great attack prepared by Kiev several months ago.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine, and I am not going to speak in more detail,” the Ukrainian president said at a press conference, quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Zelensky’s words follow those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said on Friday that the major Ukrainian counter-offensive aimed at driving troops out of Moscow had already begun.
The Ukrainian advance reaches such a height that the authorities on both sides of the line facing the Dnieper River, in the southern region of Kherson, are increasing their efforts to rescue and relocate the civilians affected by floods caused by the rupture of the Kakhovka barrage in last week.
On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed when Moscow troops opened fire on a boat evacuating people from Russian-occupied areas.
Ukrainian authorities accused Russian forces, which controlled the area around the dam, of deliberately destroying it. Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian shelling for its destruction.
Source: TSF
