Ukrainian forces have retaken the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk region, Kyiv said on Wednesday, after days of punishing battles as part of its counteroffensive against Russia.
Andrii Kovalov, spokesperson of the Ukrainian military’s general staff, said on national television Wednesday morning that “Ukrainian defense forces took control of Urozhaine” and were consolidating their positions.
Urozhaine is located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the Russian-occupied Donetsk city. It lies near the village of Staromaiorske, which Ukrainian soldiers liberated earlier this month.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar echoed Kovalov, proudly declaring on Telegram that “Urozhaine was liberated” and “the offensive continues.”
Footage released by Kyiv’s forces and geolocated by CNN shows soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag within the village near a memorial dedicated to Soviet troops who fought in World War II.
The military said alongside the video that servicemen from the 35th and 38th Separate Marine Brigades as well as other Ukrainian defense forces units had helped recapture Urozhaine.
The Kremlin’s forces inside Urozhaine had been in a precarious situation for some time. Ukrainian sources and well-connected pro-Russian military bloggers had expected Kyiv would wrest control of the village after nearby Staromaiorske fell two weeks ago.
The two villages are separated by just a small river, and by taking Staromaiorske, Kyiv’s troops gained another firing position from which to attack Russian positions within Urozhaine, giving it an advantage.
While the gains are incremental, the fall of Urozhaine shows that Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues to move forwards, if slower than anticipated.
Elsewhere on the eastern front, Ukrainian forces are continuing to conduct counteroffensive operations south of Bakhmut and “heavy fighting continues,” Kovalov said.
Russia “is putting up strong resistance, moving units and troops, and actively using its reserves” in the areas of Marinka, a city now in ruins that has been on the front lines since the beginning of the invasion, and Krasnohorivka, a town near Bakhmut, he continued.
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