Yatskivka, about 10 kilometers east of Izyum, is on the east bank of the strategic Oskil River, which Kiev forces crossed after recapturing swaths of territory in neighboring Kharkiv Oblast. Oleksii Hromov, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s general staff, said Russian troops continued to conduct offensives to dislodge Ukrainian units from recently liberated positions around Bakhmut, without success. Bakhmut, a key town with a population of 70,000 before the war, is also in the Donetsk region and has been under Russian attack for months. The Moscow forces have so far failed to understand this. Meanwhile, the Donetsk region and three other Ukrainian provinces that are fully or partially controlled by Russia – Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – are holding votes on whether to join Moscow. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Russia would consider Ukraine’s attempts to retake Donbass and other territories as attacks on Russia if the referendums give a yes vote, Russia’s Tass news agency reported on Friday.
