Ukraine claims it has liberated three villages in the region of Donetsk as part of its new counteroffensive against Russia.
It’s just the latest development in the ongoing war, which – after months of little movement on the frontline – has suddenly sprung into action again. So here’s what you need to know.
Ukraine ‘liberates’ villages from Russia
This is part of Kyiv’s highly-anticipated counteroffensive to reclaim its land from Moscow – and Donetsk is one of the four major areas Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last September.
Footage on social media shows Ukrainian troops raising their country’s flag over the village of Blahodtne, and elsewhere in Neskuchne, over the weekend.
Later on Sunday, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar also claimed Makarivka, another village, was now securely under Ukrainian control.
According to one Ukrainian military blogger, the armed forces have managed to liberate “around 95km of the ground” near a town called Valyka Novosilka in total, in just one week.
Slow progress on the rest of the frontline
While this is a huge success, Ukrainian troops are allegedly still some distance from Russia’s main frontline, where troops have reportedly “dug in”.
But, there’s speculation Ukraine is advancing in other ways. Railways which supply Zaporizhzhia and Crimea, Ukrainian regions also occupied by Russia, were allegedly attacked.
The research group, the Institute for the Study of War, said on Sunday that while the fight remains “an extraordinarily difficult tactical operation” for Ukraine, Kyiv has not yet “committed the vast majority of its counteroffensive forces”.
It claimed that Ukraine also tried to attack in other directions over the weekend, including in Luhansk, Bakhmut, and Zaporizhzhia. Russian reports suggest its naval vessels on the Black Sea had faced attacks over the weekend as well.
Relief efforts around the dam are ongoing
Ukraine is still trying to support the communities affected by the destruction of a critical dam in the Dnipro river too, which happened last week.
Major relief efforts in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions are in place, after – according to Kyiv – 77 towns and villages were flooded on the right bank of the river (which Ukraine controls). Approximately 3,700 people have been evacuated from the area, even amid strikes from Russian troops.
It’s not clear what has happened to local communities on the left bank of the river, which is still controlled by Russia.
Further divides within Russian ranks
There may be another thorn in Russia’s side emerging too, as it seems the head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin has spoken out against the Kremlin again.
Even though the Kremlin has arguably relied on the mercenaries for any recent battlefield successes, Moscow tried to put Wagner fighters under the ministry’s control by ordering them to sign government contracts.
But, Prigozhin publicly refused as part of his running row with Moscow, claiming Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu “cannot properly manage military formations”.