3 Ukrainian settlements retaken from Russian forces, says Zelenskyy

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AA) – Ukraine has taken back three settlements from Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed.

Without going into specifics, Zelenskyy said in a video message that one of the reclaimed territories was in the eastern Donetsk region and two in the country’s south.

He said Ukrainian forces also “regained certain heights” in the Lysychansk-Siversk direction.

According to local media reports, the village of Vysokopillya in Kherson and the settlement of Ozerne in Donetsk were retaken by Ukrainian soldiers.

Zelenskyy said he received “good reports” from military and intelligence commanders in a meeting on Sunday.

He claimed that Russian forces “have already started fleeing Crimea,” stressing that this was the “right choice for all of them.”

“I believe that the Ukrainian flag and free life will return to Crimea again. We will liberate all our lands, all our people. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, our intelligence, special services are already taking the necessary steps for this,” he said.

Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, while a Russian-backed insurgency started in Donetsk and Luhansk the same year.

Donetsk and Luhansk, part of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region that borders Russia, both claim to be independent territories.

President Vladimir Putin recognized their “independence” just before Russia launched the war on Ukraine on Feb. 24.

As with Crimea, all of Donbas is still internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory, and the country’s armed forces continue to fight for it.​​​​​​​