Ukraine claims recapture of 4th village in eastern Donetsk

Associated Press

Kyiv, Ukraine: Ukrainian military officials said Monday their troops have retaken another southeastern village from Russian forces, among the first small successes in stepped-up counteroffensive operations as the war drags on into its 16th month.

Western analysts and military officials have cautioned that an effort to rid Ukraine of entrenched, powerfully armed and skilled Russian troops could take years, and the success of any Ukrainian counteroffensive is far from certain.

Recent fighting on the western edge of a 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line has been complicated by a dam breach that sent floodwaters through a part of the Dnieper River separating the two sides. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote Monday on the Telegram app that Ukraine’s flag was again flying over the village of Storozhov, in the eastern Donetsk region.

A day earlier, Ukrainian officials said their troops had taken three other small villages nearby Blahodatne, Makarivka and Neskuchne south of the town of Velyka Novosilka. Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Moscowappointed administration of the Zaporizhzhia region at the west end of the front line, said “heavy battles are raging” in the area on Monday, involving Russian artillery, mortars and air power.

The small villages Blahodatne, for example, had a pre-invasion population of about 1,000 people are part of an area where the Russian front lines jut out into territory held by Ukraine. While just a few kilometers (more than 1 mile) deep, the protrusion has become one of several epicenters of intense fighting in recent days along the front line that cuts across southern and eastern Ukraine.

Despite their small size, capturing the villages is an incursion into the first line of Russian defenses and could allow Ukrainian forces to try a deeper thrust into occupied areas. Russian forces control land totaling about one-fifth of Ukraine’s total territory though that’s far less than they held before blistering Ukrainian counteroffensives last year that retook the northern city of Kharkiv and southern city of Kherson, among other places.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “counteroffensive, defensive actions are taking place” without specifying whether it was an all-out counteroffensive, which has been expected after a vast infusion of Western firepower and air defense systems into Ukraine.

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that the counteroffensive had started and Ukrainian forces were taking “significant losses.” Ukrainian forces have focused on several patches in recent days, including the Zaporizhzhia region and near the devastated Donetsk city of Bakhmut.

Russian authorities have said their troops have largely held their ground, and have not confirmed a Russian retreat from the three villages. But Semyon Pegov, a prominent Russian military blogger who goes under the nickname WarGonzo, acknowledged Russian troops had withdrawn from Blahodatne, Neskuchne and Makarivka, and said Ukrainian forces were trying to push forward along the banks of the Mokri Yaly river on Monday.

Alexandet Kots, military correspondent for Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, said Ukrainian forces were attempting to advance, despite heavy losses, toward the town of Staromlinovka, which sits on a strategic highway leading to the key city of Mariupol.