Ukrainian forces have recaptured another formerly Russian-held settlement on the southern front between the two armies, the military said on Monday.
“Defence forces returned Rivnopil under our
control. Let’s push on,” Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar posted on
Telegram, referring to a rural community in the Donetsk region.
A separate video posted on Facebook showed
soldiers of Ukraine’s 31st Separate Mechanised Brigade posing with their
national flag in front of a ruined cottage.
One of the soldiers said that Rivnopil had
been liberated on Sunday when Russian forces “fled”. “We move forward,” he
added.
This month Ukraine launched a
counter-offensive against the Russian troops occupying around a fifth of its
territory in the south and east of the country.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted
that the advance has not gone as fast as had been hoped, despite Ukraine
starting to deploy more Western-supplied weapons and tanks.
But there has been a breakthrough in the
Mokri Yaly river valley, south of Velika Novosilka in the Donetsk, and the
recapture of Rivnopil would link up territory seized in this advance.
Russian forces had confirmed that there was
fighting for Rivnopil on June 16, two weeks after the official launch of
Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive.
Earlier, in a summary of last week’s
fighting, Malyar said another 17 square kilometres (6.5 square miles) had been
liberated, bringing the total to 130 square kilometres.
The biggest pocket of reclaimed territory is
south of the war-ruined coal mining town of Vugledar, the area including
Rivnopil.
But Ukraine has also launched operations
pushing towards Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region, and is battling further
north in Donetsk to secure the flanks around the city of Bakhmut.
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