Europe 1 with AFP 3:45 p.m., September 23, 2022
At a time when Moscow is organizing annexation referendums in several Ukrainian regions, kyiv has announced that it has gained ground in the east of the country thanks to an effective counter-offensive, which has enabled the Ukrainians to retake several thousand square kilometers of the Kharkov region.
The Ukrainian army announced on Friday that it had retaken from the Russians a locality in the Donetsk region, in the east of the country, at a time when Moscow is organizing annexation referendums in several regions of Ukraine under its control.
"The Ukrainian army has taken over Yatskivka," Oleksiy Gromov, an official of the Ukrainian military staff, announced on television.
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A Ukrainian counter-offensive
The capture of this locality on the eastern bank of the Oskil River seems to confirm the continuation of a counter-offensive which has already enabled kyiv to retake several thousand square kilometers in the neighboring region of Kharkiv.
"The Ukrainians have also restored their control over positions south of Bakhmout", a key town in the Donetsk region targeted for weeks by Russian attacks, said Oleksiï Gromov.
Annexation referendums by Russia began on Friday in regions of Ukraine wholly or partly controlled by Moscow, polls described as "sham" by kyiv and the West and which mark a major escalation of the conflict.