UKRAINIAN FORCES HAVE recaptured the village of Pyatykhatky from Russian troops on the southern front, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said this morning.

Malair 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 flag from Pyatykhatky.

Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated Pyatykhatky village, Zaporizhzhia region.

8 settlements have been liberated in Melitopol and Berdiansk direction. 113 square kilometres of Ukrainian land was freed - Hanna Maliar, deputy defense minister.

Glory to Heroes! pic.twitter.com/QyFFnvcDZ4

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 19, 2023

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.

Malair 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.

© AFP 2023