Defense Ministry: Ukraine liberates 3 square kilometers near Bakhmut in last week

Ukrainian forces have liberated three square kilometers of land near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast over the last week, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Aug. 14.

Maliar said that 40 square kilometers on the southern flank of the Bakhmut area had already been gained by Ukrainian forces since the city fell to Russian forces in late May.

She added that Russian forces attempted to regain positions they had previously lost in the areas west of Klishchiivka, Andriivka, and Kurdyumivka.

On Aug. 8,  Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine's Eastern Military Command, said that Ukrainian forces continued to hold the initiative on the battlefield around Bakhmut despite heavy Russian artillery fire.

The Bakhmut area remains one of the main sectors of the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Maliar said on Aug. 1. that Russia is concentrating its forces along the eastern front line, namely near Kupiansk, Lyman, and Svatove, trying to pull Ukrainian forces away from Bakhmut and stop their advance in that area.

Ukrainian troops regularly cross Dnipro River, probing Russian defenses in Kherson Oblast

Kherson Oblast – Ukrainian soldiers board a speedboat one by one. It sinks deeper into the water, weighed down by the men, their weapons, and equipment. The soldiers at the stern push off from the riverbank with oars until, finally, they turn on the boat’s engine, roaring into the darkness toward

The Kyiv IndependentAlexander Query