Ukraine has captured the village of Piatykhatky on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia front, according to a Russia-appointed official and sources, the first village recaptured by Kyiv’s forces in nearly a week.
In a posting on Telegram on Sunday morning, Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official for the region, said Ukrainian forces had taken the village under their “operational control” after what he described as fierce fighting.
The Russian military blogger War Gonzo also reported that Piatykhatky had been abandoned. War Gonzo and Rogov both said Russian forces were trying to counterattack with artillery in the hope that Ukrainian forces had become overextended.
There was no comment from Ukrainian officials or its military. They tend to take their time in confirming battlefield success, often by releasing a flag-raising video.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had repelled attacks across three sections of the frontline, adding that Ukraine was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhzhia region. The statement did not mention Piatykhatky.
The village is about 1.25 miles south-east of Lobkove, itself declared liberated by Ukraine last Monday, and is on a route to the key city of Melitopol, 90 miles to the south. If Piatykhatky’s capture is confirmed, it would demonstrate Ukraine’s continuing incremental momentum in its counteroffensive.
The counteroffensive is generally considered to have begun nearly a fortnight ago, with Ukrainian forces attacking at several points along the southern front and also in Bakhmut in the east. Greatest progress has been made in the middle of the southern sector, where Ukraine has advanced about four miles south of Velyka Novosilka.
Russian forces appear to be adopting a strategy of placing weaker forces at the absolute front, known as the “zero” or “zero line” to Ukrainian troops, and then trying to counterattack with more experienced soldiers when they believe their opponents may have advanced beyond their air defences.
But while this has led to an initial back and forth in the fighting, Ukraine has so far held on to the villages once it has consolidated control. Ukrainian soldiers have also told the Guardian that commanders are trying to minimise losses as they advance, although casualty figures are not available to back up these statements.
War Gonzo, one of the most followed military bloggers with 1.3 million subscribers, said there were reports that Ukraine had “concentrated large reserves” outside Piatykhatky, mostly infantry but with some armoured units also visible.
Ukraine’s series of attacks are generally considered to be probing attacks, designed to reveal weaknesses in the Russian positions. The belief is that at some point, a main thrust, which is likely to involve two or more brigades and make greater use of western supplied armour such as British Challenger 2 tanks, will follow.
Kyiv, though, hopes to keep Russia guessing. On Friday, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, said that “the most active areas” of the front were some way to the east, from south of Velyka Novosilka and around, in the direction of Mariupol and Berdyansk.
British tanks, she added, were “loaded, armed” but “waiting for their time” to attack, part of one of 12 brigades readied over the spring for the counteroffensive by Kyiv. Some of the western-trained brigades have been engaged in the fighting over the past fortnight, but others are yet to be seen on the frontline.
Ukraine’s modest gains in the past two weeks still leave its forces several miles from Russia’s main network of defensive lines, fortified trenches dug – in some cases with forced labour. It also remains far from clear Kyiv can achieve the kind of breakthrough that would force panic in the Kremlin.
Overnight, a Ukrainian official from Odesa’s military administration, said the military had destroyed a “very significant” ammunition depot near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk in the southern region of Kherson.
Videos on social media show a vast plume of smoke rising far on the horizon with sounds of blasts and burning projectiles flying into the sky. Attacks on logistics sites, using long-range missiles or drones, are considered critical to Ukrainian effort, to degrade Russia’s ability to resist.
