Ukrainian military officials on Monday said their troops have reclaimed another southeastern village from Russian forces just days after ramping up their efforts to counterstrike.

Ukraine’s flag was once again flying over the village of Storozhov, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a Telegram post.

The news comes after officials announced they had taken back three other villages in the eastern Donetsk region: Blahodatne, Makarivka, and Neskuchne.

In the northeast, Ukrainian troops said they repelled Russian fighters from the village of Blahodatne.

Ukraine’s 68th Separate Hunting Brigade shared a video on Facebook showing soldiers claiming victory by installing a Ukrainian flag on a damaged building in the village.

An assault team captured six Russian troops after entering several buildings where some 60 soldiers were stationed, according to Myroslav Semeniuk, a spokesperson for the brigade.

“The enemy keeps shelling us but this won’t stop us,” Semeniuk told the Associated Press. “The next village we plan to reclaim is Urozhayne. After that, (we’ll proceed) further south.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that the country’s anticipated counteroffensive and defensive actions were underway, but did not specify whether it was an all-out push.

“From my point of view, counteroffensive defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that military commanders are “feeling positive” about ongoing efforts.

What to know about this stage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

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1. Bakhmut

Ukrainian forces continued advancing around the city of Bakhmut in the east, claiming gains along the Bila Hora-Andriivka and Bila Hora-Kurdyumivka lines southwest of the city that was captured by Russian troops in May. Over the past week, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Kyiv’s fighters had liberated more than 1.5 square miles of territory in the area, including an important position outside the strategic village of Klishchiivka. Capturing the village itself, which lies on higher ground, could potentially allow Ukrainian soldiers to encircle Russians inside Bakhmut.

2. Tavria

Ukraine claimed to have recaptured several villages in the south of the country as part of its budding push toward the Sea of Azov, with the aim of cutting off Russia’s land bridge linking occupied areas in the east to Crimea. A general in charge of that sector said his troops repelled 27 enemy attacks and inflicted hundreds of casualties on the enemy.

3. Zaporizhzhia 

Kyiv’s forces launched a successful missile strike on a Russian base in the occupied town of Tokmak in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, killing as many as 200 soldiers and the town commandant. Overall in the eastern theater, Ukraine’s military said its troops had retaken 65 square miles of territory since the start of the counteroffensive in early June.

4. Berdyansk and Melitopol

Kyiv’s forces reportedly inched forward more than half a mile in the Berdyansk and Melitopol directions in the south in recent days — and a total of more than 5 miles since the beginning of counteroffensive operations in these directions. In Berdyansk, a key port city on the Black Sea, a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile strike this week leveled a hotel housing Russian military commanders, among them a high-ranking general who was killed. 

5. Bakhmut

Kyiv said its troops had advanced about a mile on the flanks of the ravaged city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which was seized by Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries in May after months of fighting and handed over to the regular units. Moscow claimed it had fought off the assault, and senior US officials said that Ukrainian troops in the east sustained “significant” losses in soldiers and equipment.

6. Belgorod

Pro-Ukrainian rebels have been carrying out raids into the Russian city of Belgorod located on the border with Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces continued shelling the city and sowing chaos. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from the region, sparking fury in the Kremlin. Partisans taking part in the Belgorod campaign said when Crimea is liberated, they will march on Moscow.

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His comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted on June 5 that the counteroffensive had already been launched but that Ukrainian troops were suffering “significant losses.”

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry repeated claims it was fighting off Ukrainian forces in the region.

In a statement, it said Ukraine’s attempts at offensive operations in the southern Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions over the last 24 hours were “unsuccessful.”

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, claimed that it was unclear who currently controls the village of Blahodatne, as well as two other villages.

Rogov confirmed in a Telegram post that Russian fighters were forced to leave the village of Neskuchne.

With Post wires