A sniper from Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade takes position during a reconnaissance mission, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut, Ukraine, Sept. 7, 2023. Portal/Stringer/File Photo acquire license rights
KYIV, Sept 18 (Portal) – President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday his forces had recaptured an eastern village on the southern flank of Bakhmut. This would be Ukraine’s second significant win in three days in its grueling counteroffensive against the Russian army.
“Today I would especially like to praise the soldiers who, step by step, are returning to Ukraine what belongs to it, namely the Bakhmut region,” Zelensky said in his evening video address to the nation.
The fierce battle for the village of Klishchiivka, which stretches on higher ground about 9 km (6 miles) south of Bakhmut, has lasted weeks and comes after Kiev said on Friday it had seized control of a tiny nearby village of Andriivka .
The successes were among the most significant in Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began in June and aimed at breaking through entrenched Russian lines.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, who is also in operational leadership of the counteroffensive, released a video showing Ukrainian forces hoisting the blue and yellow national flag on destroyed buildings while the sounds of battle can be heard in the background.
“Klishchiivka was liberated by the Russians,” Syrskyi, who has often visited the Bakhmut Front to strategize and boost troops’ morale, said on the messaging app Telegram.
Portal was unable to verify the Ukrainian reports and there was no immediate comment from Moscow. On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in its daily briefing that its forces were continuing attacks near Klishchyivka, where about 400 people lived before the war.
Ukrainian military analysts said this week that the liberation of settlements near Bakhmut would allow the military to advance from the southern flank in the Bakhmut area.
“Ukraine always gets its money back,” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote in Telegram.
Zelensky thanked the successful units, which he said included the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade, the 5th Assault Brigade, the “glorious 95th” and a national police assault brigade.
Ilia Yevlash, spokesman for Ukrainian troops in the east, said the battle caused “severe damage” to Russian airborne units, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s “Akhmat” battalion, Storm-Z consisting of Russian criminals and the military intelligence of the Russian General Staff and motorized rifle units.
“So now we have gained a base that will allow us to continue to develop offensive actions and liberate our country from the invaders,” Yevlash wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Russia was still trying to regain lost positions in the village.
“Today we had to fend off enemy attacks all day,” she said.
Russia has been in control of Klishchyivka since January. Moscow still controls large swathes of Ukrainian territory in the east and south.
Klishchyivka, like Andriivka and other settlements in eastern Ukraine, was converted into rubles during the long months of the battle for Bakhmut, which fell into Russian hands in May.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Nick Starkov and Elaine Monaghan; writing by Elaine Monaghan and Lidia Kelly; Edited by Diane Craft and Stephen Coates
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