The Russian army on Saturday claimed the rare capture of a locality in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, where its troops have gone on the offensive for a few weeks, in parallel with its offensives around Bakhmout and Vougledar.
“In the direction of Kupyansk, as a result of offensive actions by units of the Western group, the locality of Grianykivka, in the Kharkiv region, has been completely liberated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
In its morning report, the Ukrainian army had for its part indicated on Saturday that the small village of Grianykivka had been “bombarded” the day before by Russian artillery, without giving more details.
This locality is located 20 km northeast of Kupiansk, the main city in this area of the Kharkiv region, which had been taken by the Russians in the first days of the military intervention, a year ago.
The Ukrainians then recaptured Kupiansk, which had a pre-war population of nearly 30,000 in September, after a lightning counter-offensive.
For several days, the forces of Moscow, reinforced by the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists in Russia, have returned to the attack in this sector.
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