Ukrainian forces have recaptured the village of Urozhaine from Russian troops in the southeast and dug in on its outskirts, Kyiv's deputy defense minister said on Wednesday.
"Urozhaine liberated," Hanna Maliar said on Telegram. "Our defenders are entrenched on the outskirts."
The village in Donetsk region is part of a cluster of small rural settlements that Ukraine has declared liberated since early June when it started a push against Russian troops who control swathes of the south and east.
There was no immediate comment from Russia. Russian military bloggers said fierce fighting raged near the village and that Russian units were trying to prevent Ukraine from strengthening its positions in Urozhaine.
The village's recapture would indicate Ukraine is pressing ahead with an offensive drive south towards the Sea of Azov that aims to cut Russian occupying forces in half. Urozhaine lies just over 90 km (55 miles) from the Sea of Azov.
In a sign of the difficulty of the battlefield operations, Urozhaine is the first village Ukraine says it has retaken since June 27 when it announced the recapture of neighboring Staromaiorske.
Kyiv says its counteroffensive push is progressing slower than it wanted because of vast Russian minefields and prepared Russian defensive lines.
The recapture of Urozhaine would bring Ukraine closer to threatening the village of Staromlynivka, several kilometers to the south, which military analysts say serves as a Russian stronghold in the area.
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine, including the peninsula of Crimea, most of Luhansk region and large tracts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Russian attacks on Ukraine's Danube port
Grain silos and warehouses were damaged in the Russian overnight drone attacks at one of Ukraine's Danube river ports, Ukraine's Odesa's Governor Oleh Kiper said on Wednesday.
"Russian terrorists attacked the Odesa region twice last night with attack drones. The main target is port and grain infrastructure in the south of the region," Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.
A Ukrainian Danube river port is continuing operations after an overnight Russian drone attack, which damaged grain silos and warehouses, an industry source said on Wednesday.
Russia's overnight drone strikes targeted Ukraine's river port of Reni on the Danube, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Wednesday.
Ukraine reported Russian strikes on one of its Danube ports earlier on Wednesday, but did not immediately say which port had been targeted. Ukraine operates two major Danube river ports, Reni and Izmail, which are vital for Ukrainian grain exports.