KYIV—Ukrainian forces have recaptured the village of Pyatykhatky from Russian troops on the southern front, Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said on Monday.
Malyar said on social media that “eight settlements have been liberated” in total this month since the start of a counteroffensive, with 113 square kilometres of territory recaptured.
After accumulating Western-supplied weapons and building up assault units, the Ukrainian military is battling to recapture territory seized by Russia, which invaded in February 2022.
The border guard service released images of several Ukrainian servicemen holding the country’s blue-and-yellow flag from Pyatykhatky.
The village is in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia claimed to have annexed along with three other Ukrainian regions last year, despite not fully controlling any of them.
Malyar also said Ukrainian troops were coming up against fierce resistance in the east of the country, particularly around Bakhmut, a town recently captured by Russia after months of fighting.
“The Russians have transferred additional units there and increased the amount of shelling,” Malyar said.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based military observatory group said in an analytical note on Monday that Kyiv’s forces had likely clawed back some territory from Russian forces over the weekend.
“Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive actions on at least four sectors of the front on June 18 and made limited territorial gains,” it said.
Meanwhile, strikes from Ukraine hit two Russian border regions early on Monday, wounding seven people, including a child, local governors said.
Strikes on the Belgorod region hit several residential buildings in the Valuisk district, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
“The Valuisk municipal district is under attack from from Ukrainian forces. According to preliminary information, seven people were wounded, among them a child,” he wrote in a post that included a photo of a teddy bear next to a broken window. AFP
All of the wounded have been hospitalised, he said.
Strikes on the Kursk border region hit two villages, causing damage but no victims, Governor Roman Starovoit said.
“Ukrainian forces hit the Tyotkino and Popovo-Lezhachi villages this morning,” Starovoit wrote on Telegram, adding that the strikes caused power outages and damaged several vehicles.
In Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Governor Sergei Aksyonov said two drones were shot down overnight.
Attacks on Russian regions bordering Ukraine and in Crimea have increased over the past several weeks, as Ukraine forces wage a counteroffensive to recapture land seized by Russian troops.
