Russia seizes key Ukraine village Kyiv took in counteroffensive: Moscow

Russian troops have captured the village of Urozhaine, the Kremlin said on Sunday, around 11 months after Kyiv retook the settlement from Moscow’s control in its summer 2023 push.

Moscow’s troops seized Urozhaine and are “clearing and demining it,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Urozhaine sits in the south of the eastern Donetsk region, close to the border with Zaporizhzhia. It has long been the site of fierce clashes, along with the neighboring village of Staromaiorske.

Ukraine reclaimed Urozhaine and Staromaiorske in summer 2023, as part of an ultimately slow and sluggish counteroffensive that resulted in a smattering of small gains for Kyiv. Ukraine said the effort kicked off later than intended and weapons deliveries to its troops were delayed, meaning Russia had time to prepare its defenses and heavily mine territory.

Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsia grouping of forces operating in the east of the country, told Newsweek on Sunday that Kyiv’s military was holding off on official comments on the situation around Urozhaine, with “real battles” blazing on.

“The situation is difficult,” Voloshyn said, adding Russian attacks in the area had picked up in recent days.

Newsweek could not independently verify battlefield reports. Ukraine’s military said on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. local time that Russia had carried out 18 attacks in the past day on the section of the front line that includes Urozhaine, but did not say its troops had withdrawn from the settlement.

Deep State, a popular Ukrainian war blog, said on Saturday that Russian forces had launched a “massive assault on the northern part of the village” in the early part of the day local time. “The enemy’s forces were significant,” the blog wrote.

In a later post, Deep State said Russian forces had taken control of Urozhaine. The U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said on Saturday that geolocated footage from earlier in the weekend indicated Russian troops had advanced into the northern part of the settlement.

State news agency Tass reported on Friday that Ukrainian troops had pulled back from positions in the center of the village.

Russia has largely been making incremental gains along the hundreds of miles of frontlines, keeping the pressure on Ukraine’s eastern front lines, while also attacking into the country’s northeast.

In early May, Russia launched a cross-border offensive into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, claiming a handful of border settlements and looming north of the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. But Kyiv quickly warned that Moscow hoped to overstretch Ukraine’s resources in the east, and has consistently reported intensified assaults in Donetsk.

Western analysts suggest Ukrainian forces have managed to roll back Russian control around a settlement north of Kharkiv City, and advance around the city of Kupiansk and northwest of Svatove, a Luhansk city under Russian control.

Russian forces have advanced near the Donetsk city of Toretsk, as well as northwest of Avdiivka, the ISW think tank said on Saturday. Moscow seized Avdiivka in February, and has been pushing westward and gaining territory in the months since.