Ukraine announced on Sunday that it had recaptured three villages in the eastern region of Donetsk, the first territorial gains made following “counter-offensive measures” outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day. In the east, “the famous soldiers of the 68th brigade (…) liberated the Blakotatne region, which before the war had less than 1,000 inhabitants”, confirmed the Ukrainian ground forces. All with a video showing soldiers with a Ukrainian flag in a destroyed building.
Ukrainians said they captured two Russian soldiers and pro-Russian separatist fighters there. Within three hours, the Ukrainian border guard service assured that a second village, Neskuchne, in the same region of Donetsk, was “back under the Ukrainian flag”. In the evening, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Khanna Maliar announced that a third small town, Makharivka near Blakotatne, had fallen to troops from Kiev.
Meanwhile, President Zelensky acknowledged on Saturday that his army was carrying out “counter-offensive operations” while refusing to elaborate.
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