Kyiv, Aug 16 (EFE).- Ukraine on Wednesday confirmed that it had recaptured Urozhaine in the Donetsk region from Russian forces.
A handout picture made available by Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, shows a grain depot at the damaged grain terminal of a port on the Danube River in the Odesa region, southern Ukraine, 16 August 2023. EFE-EPA/Odesa Regional Administration handout EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
“Urozhaine has been liberated. Our defenders are consolidating their positions,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.
A handout picture made available by Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, shows a grain depot at the damaged grain terminal of a port on the Danube River in the Odesa region, southern Ukraine, 16 August 2023. EFE-EPA/Odesa Regional Administration handout EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
The Ukrainian operations have managed to restrict the advances of the Russian troops, she added.
A day earlier, Maliar had said that Ukrainian soldiers were gaining ground in the Donetsk region and Zaporizhzhia city, which the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visited on Tuesday.
Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive to liberate the city of Melitopol in south of the Zaporizhzhia region.
Meanwhile, the first ship departed on Wednesday through the temporary corridor created for civilian vessels.
“The JOSEPH SCHULTE container ship (Hong Kong flag) has left the port of Odesa and is moving along the temporary corridor established for civilian vessels to/from the Black Sea seaports of Ukraine,” the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine posted on Telegram.
Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities reported a Russian drone attack in the Odesa region on Tuesday night.
The Russian army attacked Odesa twice with combat drones, targeting the port and the grain infrastructure, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Kiper, said on Telegram on Wednesday.
“As a result of enemy strikes on one of the Danube ports, warehouses and granaries were damaged. Fires that occurred were quickly extinguished by the employees of the State Emergency Service,” he added.
No one was killed or injured in the attack, according to the official.
In early August, Kyiv said that Russian forces had attacked a grain silo in Izmail port on the Danube River affecting transport through Romania.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the successive attacks launched by Russia against the port and industrial infrastructure of the Odesa region have begun to affect the alternative route out of Ukraine along the Danube River. EFE
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