Ukraine retakes 2 villages in Donetsk Oblast near Dobropillia, military says
Ukrainian forces liberated two villages in eastern Donetsk Oblast about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of embattled Pokrovsk, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Oct. 26.
The General Staff said that Ukrainian troops operating in the area cleared Kucheriv Yar and Sukhetske of Russian troops over the past 10 days. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the claim.
The General Staff's report comes nearly three months after Russian forces made a sudden 10-kilometer (6-mile) push in just days toward the key highway connecting Kramatorsk and Dobropillia in early August. Since the rapid Russian advance in the area, Ukrainian forces have taken back nine villages, and nine more have been cleared of Russian sabotage groups, the General Staff said in its Facebook post.
Ukrainian open-source battlefield monitoring group DeepState also shows the villages of Kucheriv Yar and Sukhetske as controlled by Ukrainian forces. The villages are about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Dobropillia, a town that Russian forces have heavily struck since the August breach.
Across the front, Russian forces continue to launch offensives on multiple sectors despite the Ukrainian claims that its troops have effectively stalled Moscow's momentum.
Russian troops have already entered the long-embattled Pokrovsk, semi-encircling what used to be a key Ukrainian logistics hub, and are trying to further close in on the city to force a Ukrainian withdrawal.
The General Staff acknowledged on Oct. 26 that Russia has accumulated about 200 servicemen in Pokrovsk, infiltrating small infantry groups, reporting shooting and drone battles in the city.
The 7th Corps of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces acknowledged the Russian penetration to the railway on Oct. 20.
Francis Farrell
