Ukrainian army announces it has liberated a village in Donetsk region
The Ukrainian army has cleared the village of Staromaiorske on the southern front from Russian troops, where Kiev forces have intensified their counter-offensive in recent days, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar announced, AFP reports.
"Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region has been liberated. Our defenders are currently carrying out clearing operations" of Russian troops, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.
This is one of the first tangible results of the Ukrainian offensive in this sector of the front, according to Agerpres.ro. Kiev troops had already liberated several villages in the Vremivka pocket area, which is difficult for the Russian army to defend and is still several kilometres from the main defence lines of Moscow's forces.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski released a video on Telegram showing soldiers with a Ukrainian flag next to a wall full of shrapnel. "Our South, our boys, glory to Ukraine!" the official wrote. In the video, the soldiers say they have "liberated the village of Staromaiorske".
The Ukrainian army has been waging a major counteroffensive since early June to retake Russian-occupied territory. This military operation has so far yielded only modest gains for Kiev, capturing only a few villages as well as the surrounding areas around Bahmut.
The Russian army, on the other hand, said on Wednesday that it had repelled a large Ukrainian attack involving several hundred soldiers near Orihiv on another sector of the southern front.
Moscow troops are on the offensive in the northeast, claiming territorial gains in recent days in the direction of Liman, where they announced Tuesday the capture of the village of Sergheevka.
