Ukraine says it gained ground in rare counterattack after months of losing ground
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A Ukrainian official helping people to evacuate from Ukraine’s front-line city of Pokrovsk, Ukraine, on April 12.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
KYIV – Ukraine said on April 17 that it had gained small pockets of land from Russia near the front-line city of Pokrovsk, mounting a successful counterattack after months of losing ground.
Russian forces have been advancing across the front line in eastern Ukraine for over a year, pressing their advantage against overstretched and outgunned Ukrainian troops.
“We are continuing our defensive operation, conducting counteroffensive actions, and have had some success,” Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrsky said on Facebook.
“Over the past weeks, we have liberated about 16 sq km of territory near the settlements of Udachne, Kotlyne and Shevchenko,” he added.
All three are a short distance from Pokrovsk, a logistics hub that has been in Russia’s sights for months.
The city, which had a population of about 60,000 before Russia’s invasion, lies on a key road supplying Ukrainian troops and towns across the front line.
Maps published by Deep State, an online battlefield tracker, showed small parcels of land south of Pokrovsk as “liberated” as of April 17. AFP
