Ukrainian military reports liberating Blahodatne village in Donetsk Oblast
Ukrainian forces have liberated Blahodatne, a village in Donetsk Oblast, the 68th separate Jaeger brigade reported on June 11.
The military did not specify the location of the liberated settlement, and there are several of them under the same name in Donetsk Oblast. However, multiple Ukrainian media outlets, along with the Deep State volunteer group that crowd-sources an online map of the front line, reported that the liberated Blahodatne is the village located near the town of Velyka Novosilka, west of Vuhledar.
The video posted online by the brigade shows its soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over a partially destroyed building, looking like a school or a village council.
The brigade also reported capturing Russian soldiers, saying that "the information received from them would assist in the further liberation of the occupied Ukrainian territories."
The announcement comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces is already ongoing in Ukraine.
"From my point of view, counteroffensive defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine," Zelensky said.
He said that he is constantly in touch with Ukrainian military commanders, including Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, and that all of them are "feeling positive" about the ongoing operation.
On June 9, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Ukrainian forces have made further gains around Bakhmut, which has been the epicenter of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces for months, and continued counteroffensive operations in at least four areas of the front.
A day before that, ABC News reported, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials, one of them supposedly close to Zelensky, that Ukraine launched its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia on June 8.
According to the sources, the hostilities were taking place in southeastern Ukraine, south of the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Russia claimed that the counteroffensive began on June 5, adding that its forces had successfully repelled it without providing evidence.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry refuted Russia's claim, calling it a diversion effort. At the same time, the military reported advances in the Bakhmut direction and "other areas" on June 6.
