Ukrainian counteroffensive faces challenges, Kyiv admits

Ukrainian forces on Thursday claimed success on the southeastern front where they liberated one settlement the previous day.

Ukraine announced the recapture of the village of Urozhaine from Russian troops in the southeast on Wednesday.

Urozhaine, on the edge of Donetsk region, is the first village Kyiv says it has retaken since July 27, a sign of the challenge Ukraine faces advancing through heavily mined Russian defensive lines without powerful air support.

“In the direction south of Urozhaine they (Ukrainian troops) had success,” military spokesman Andriy Kovaliov told the national television.

He gave no more details.

Kyiv says its counteroffensive is progressing slower than it wanted because of vast Russian minefields and prepared Russian defensive lines.

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine, including the peninsula of Crimea, most of Luhansk region and large tracts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

(Reuters)