All eyes are on Ukraine’s counteroffensive after its armed forces claimed to have liberated four front-line villages in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Sunday that the villages of Blahodatne and Makarivka had been de-occupied and on Monday added Storozheve to the list of liberated settlements.
In the Bakhmut area, Ukrainian troops are continuing to conduct assault actions, Maliar said, with gains recorded there.
Another Ukrainian brigade posted on Facebook that it gained control of the village of Neskuchne in Donetsk.
A military vehicle moves through a road as the Ukrainian army conducts an operation to target the trenches of Russian forces through the Donetsk region, where the country’s most intense clashes are taking place.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine’s government has consistently said there would be no public announcement of the start of the offensive but last weekend, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy finally confirmed that counteroffensive and defensive actions had indeed begun.
That came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had so far failed in their counteroffensive but that the “offensive potential” of Ukraine had not been undermined yet.
In response, Zelenskyy said Saturday that “it’s interesting that Putin said [that] about our counter offensive. It is important that Russia always feels it, that they do not have much time left, in my opinion. Defensive counter-attacks are taking place in Ukraine — at what stage I will not say in detail.”
