Ukraine announced on Monday that its forces had recaptured Pyatykhatky, a town located on the highway leading to one of the most heavily defended areas in the Russian-occupied south and that they had recovered 113 square kilometers of land in the last two weeks.
Ukrainian soldiers displayed yellow and blue national flags in a video posted on social media, saying they were inside Pyatykhatky, the eighth town in the southeast that Kyiv claims to have liberated.
“Today, June 19, the forces of the 128th assault brigade drove the Russians out of the village of Pyatykhatky. The Russians fled, leaving behind equipment and ammunition, an unidentified soldier said. Reuters could not immediately verify where the video was taken.
On Sunday, an official stationed by Russia in the partially occupied region of Zaporizhzhia said that Kyiv troops had retaken Pyatykhatky but were later driven out, and the settlement was now in a “grey” area of control.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had not only retaken Pyatykhatky but had advanced up to seven kilometers (4.3 miles) into Russian lines in two weeks.
“In the course of two weeks of offensive operations in the Berdiansk and Melitopol directions, eight settlements were liberated,” Maliar wrote in the Telegram messenger.
Reuters
