‘TO BE CONTINUED’

Ukraine Recaptures Key Village as Brutal Counteroffensive Drags On

Footage shows the Ukrainian flag being raised by soldiers within the tiny village of Urozhaine.

Kyiv’s forces retook a tiny village in the Donetsk region after more than a week of grueling battle with Russian soldiers, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. “Urozhaine has been liberated,” Hanna Maliar, a deputy defense minister, declared on Telegram, adding that “the offensive continues.” Video released by Ukrainian soldiers and geolocated by CNN shows them raising a flag within the village. According to The Kyiv Independent, one of the soldiers in the footage says, “To be continued. Next, there will be victory.” The Russian Vostok battalion, which had been stationed in the village, admitted in a Tuesday message on Telegram, “We lost Urozhaine.” The battalion also claimed, however, to have inflicted heavy damage on Ukraine’s forces as they advanced. Urozhaine, which had a pre-war population of fewer than 1,000 people, is the first village Kyiv says it has retaken this month, and is one of several declared liberated since the government launched its slogging counteroffensive. The village’s recapture means that, alongside Staromaiorske, which Ukrainian soldiers seized late last month, Kyiv now has footholds on both sides of the river that separates the settlements.