Ukraine forces recapture new Russian-occupied settlement

Ukrainian forces have recaptured another formerly Russian-held settlement on the southern front between the two armies, deputy defense minister Ganna Malyar said Monday.

"Defense forces returned Rivnopil under our control. Let's push on," the minister posted on her Telegram account, referring to a rural community in the Donetsk region.

This month Ukraine launched a counteroffensive 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 be a continuation of 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 counteroffensive.

Earlier, in a summary of last week's fighting, Malyar said another 17 square kilometers (6.5 square miles) had been liberated, bringing the total to 130 square kilometers.

The biggest pocket of reclaimed territory is south of Vugledar, 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.




AFP