Russia claims to have captured a key village in Ukraine retaken by Ukrainian soldiers last summer. The Kremlin said on Sunday (July 14) that Russia has seized Urozhaine, with troops now “clearing and demining” the settlement.
Ukraine‘s liberation of Urozhaine was hailed as a significant victory in Kyiv’s counteroffensive last year. In the Donetsk region, the village is close to the border with Zaporizhzhia.
Lt Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for Ukraine‘s Khortytsia group of forces operating in the east of the country, told Newsweek Kyiv’s military would not comment officially as fighting around Urozhaine was continuing.
The same publication reports Russia carried out 18 attacks since Saturday along a section of the front line, including Urozhaine.
Ukraine war blog Deep State reported Russia launched a “large-scale” assault in the north of the village, adding: “The enemy forces were considerable”.
Analysts added that Russian troops had advanced near the settlements of Oleksandropil, Novoselivka Persha and Makiivka. Fighting was still raging in Zalizne and Klishchiivka, according to Deep State.
Express.co.uk has not been able to independently verify battlefield reports.
Vladimir Rogov, who chairs Russia‘s Public Chamber Commission for issues of sovereignty, patriotic projects and support for veterans, told TASS that taking Urozhaine would help Russian troops advance further.
He said: “This is a good stronghold for further active combat operations, bearing in mind that Ukrainian troops are building defences only in settlements and there are none [in] the steppe.
TASS reported that the liberation of Urozhainoye will make it possible to advance northwards to Vremevka and stage an offensive to the east near Ugledar and westwards from Priyutnoye to Malinovka and Gulyaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Russia is pressing hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where a shortage of troops and ammunition in the third year of war has rendered Ukrainian troops vulnerable.
Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine.
An oil depot in the Tsimlyansky district, deep inside Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, was set ablaze in the early hours of Saturday after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Russian shelling of Ukraine killed four people on Saturday, according to officials. Two people died in Ukraine’s partly occupied Kherson region and two were wounded in the attack close to the regional capital.
Two other people died on Saturday afternoon and 22 were wounded in Ukraine‘s northeastern Kharkiv region, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.