Ukraine liberates another village near Pokrovsk, military says
Ukrainian forces cleared out Russian troops from the Donetsk Oblast village of Udachne and raised the Ukrainian flag in the settlement, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Sept. 2.
Udachne lies around 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of Pokrovsk, a strategic town that has become one of the fiercest front-line areas in Ukraine's east.
The announcement comes only a day after the Ukrainian military reported the liberation of the nearby village of Novoekonomichne.
Soldiers of Ukraine's 425th Skala Regiment destroyed all Russian positions in the city, the General Staff said, sharing a video of a pair of Ukrainian soldiers raising the flag on top of a damaged building.
"For two weeks, assault units gradually cleared house after house and raised the Ukrainian flag over the village," a military spokesperson said in the video.
The Ukrainian monitoring group DeepState showed that Russian forces were still holding the southern part of Udachne as of Sept. 1, with the northern part marked as a contested "gray" area.
Kyiv says that Russia has amassed around 100,000-strong force near Pokrovsk, a key strategic hub that has faced a Russian onslaught for many months.
Moscow sought to push forward in Ukraine's east during its spring and summer offensive, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to negotiate a peace deal.
According to DeepState, the Russian offensive slowed down by 18% in August, with Russian forces occupying 464 square kilometers (180 square miles) of new territory.
The DeepState report followed claims that Ukrainian forces are gradually pushing Russian troops back near the town of Dobropillia in Donetsk Oblast.
At the same time, the Ukrainian military warned that Russia is already preparing new attacks, namely in the direction of the town of Siversk in Donetsk Oblast.
