Ukraine drives Russian forces from Kharkiv village

Ukrainian troops have driven Russian forces out of a village in northern Kharkiv that Moscow had occupied for just over a week, it has been reported.

The DeepState Map Project, which has links to Ukraine’s military, said on Telegram that Kyiv’s forces had driven Russian troops out of Sotnytskyi Kozachok, located near the border between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia had reportedly occupied the village since July 3, which allowed Moscow’s forces to expand the front line in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian media reported. But a map by the DeepState channel showed Sotnytskyi Kozachok marked in blue late Friday night instead of red—to indicate the presence of Russian forces—the previous day.

The village was among several settlements which had faced Russian shelling following Moscow’s push into the region by the border which was launched on May 10.

The DeepState post on Friday said that Ukrainian defense forces “had detected and destroyed a sabotage and reconnaissance group” that had been in the village. The post also said that Russians had made advances around five villages in the Donetsk Oblast.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Friday that Western aid has allowed Ukrainian forces to stabilize critical areas of the front and make successful counterattacks in northern Kharkiv, toward the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region.

The Washington, D.C., think tank also said that Kyiv will be able to step up these counterattacks over the coming months as further Western security assistance arrives at the front line and as Ukraine continues to build out reserves and new brigades.

Kharkiv has been the scene of huge losses of Russian troops, which the British defense ministry said on Friday had reached “conflict highs.”

The ministry said that daily average casualty numbers for Russian troops in the war were largely linked to a failed attempt to advance in the region since Moscow launched an offensive in May.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence said that average daily Russian casualties, both killed and wounded, had reached 1,262 and 1,163 in the two months and that over this time period, Moscow had “likely lost in excess of 70,000 personnel.”

It comes amid reports of overnight attacks by Russian forces in the Donetsk region which killed six people in the town of Lyman, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

They were among Russian attacks across Ukraine that killed at least seven people and injured at least 29 over the past day, regional authorities said on July 13.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces downed four out of the five Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight Friday, according to Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk. Another drone entered the airspace of Belarusia’s Homel Oblast, which is just over the Ukrainian border, he added. Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.