Ukraine claims capture of southeast village of Urozhaine from Russia

According to Kyiv’s deputy defence minister on Wednesday, Ukrainian soldiers have retaken the village of Urozhaine from Russian forces in the southeast and have set up camp nearby.

“Urozhaine liberated,” Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app. “Our defenders are entrenched on the outskirts.”

The village in the Donetsk region is a part of a collection of tiny rural communities that Ukraine has proclaimed freed since beginning a push against Russian forces that had taken over large portions of the south and east in early June.

In a post on Telegram, the Russian defence ministry did not confirm losing the hamlet but instead claimed that its artillery and aeroplanes were engaging Ukrainian forces in the Urozhaine region.

If the settlement is taken again, it will be a sign that Ukraine is moving forward with its offensive operation to cut the Russian occupiers in half as it moves south towards the Sea of Azov. Just over 90 kilometres (55 miles) separate Urozhaine from the Sea of Azov.

Urozhaine is the only village Ukraine claims to have retaken since July 27, when it announced the recapture of adjoining Staromaiorske, a sign of the difficulty of the military operations.

Kyiv claims that due of the huge Russian minefields and ready-made Russian defensive lines, its counteroffensive thrust is moving more slowly than it had hoped.

The settlement of Staromlynivka, several kilometres to the south, which military analysts claim serves as a Russian stronghold in the region, would be more vulnerable to Ukrainian attack if Urozhaine were taken back.

Nearly 5% of Ukraine is under Russian control, including the Crimean peninsula, the majority of the Luhansk area, and sizable portions of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.

(With agency inputs)