Ukraine says counteroffensive has liberated four villages in Donetsk
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine - Ukrainian troops pressing a difficult counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces said Monday that they had liberated a string of four villages in the eastern Donetsk region.
Those gains, if confirmed, would represent modest but politically significant territorial advances as the counterattack, which began in earnest last week, intensifies across Ukraine’s southeast.
The villages - Neskuchne, Storozheve, Blahodatne and Makarivka - are located south of Velyka Novosilka, one of the counteroffensive’s key starting points close to the border of Zaporizhzhia, clustered on a roughly five-and-a-half mile stretch of road leading south into occupied territory heavily fortified by Russia.
The towns are about 80 miles north of the long-occupied city of Mariupol, which was nearly destroyed by heavy Russian bombing last year.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian Volunteer Army posted a video in which its members posed with their battalion colors in the village of Neskuchne. The Washington Post could not independently verify the video, or others purporting to show the liberations.
Ukraine’s 35th Separate Marine Brigade posted a video on Monday reportedly showing its forces raising the Ukrainian flag and marching through the village of Storozheve, and the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade showed footage from the village of Blahodatne.
“The operation began at about five a.m.,” a soldier, identified only by his call sign “Doc,” said in the Storozheve video. “The enemy resisted with its artillery in the beginning. We managed to take the initiative into our own hands and retake the village house by house.”
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, posting on Telegram, said that Ukraine’s forces also had taken the town of Makarivka, just south of Blahodatne.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed in a statement to have repelled attacks in the area, beginning in Vremivka - the first town along the road south from Velyka Novosilka.
“Decisive actions of defending units, artillery fire and heavy firing systems of Vostok Group of Forces repelled three enemy attacks from the direction of Velykaya Novoselka of Donetsk People’s Republic,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, referring to the separatist region recognized by Moscow in its illegal attempt to annex Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine on Monday made no mention of the losses that were inevitably incurred as part of the advance. And the focus on such a small stretch of territory underscored the difficult nature of the counteroffensive and the likelihood that gains, if any, would be measured in extremely small increments.
Ukrainian officials have warned that Kyiv’s forces could experience high casualties, as they try to claw back territory from Russia’s army, which has entrenched itself in heavily fortified positions throughout Ukraine’s south and east.
Last week, video and photographic footage indicated that Ukraine’s military suffered significant losses of equipment - including some Leopard battle tanks recently acquired from its Western allies.
Ukraine has also claimed to make advances on the flanks of the destroyed eastern city of Bakhmut, which recently fell to Russian control after more than eight months of fierce and bloody fighting.