Ukraine forced to pull out from yet another village as Russia reduces region to ruins

Ukraine has pulled out of another front-line position as Russian forces blast Ukrainian defenses in a relentless onslaught.

The army left the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk region, an official said Thursday,

The village was reduced to rubble which "made it impossible to hold the positions there,” Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for local ground forces, said. He did not say when the pullout occurred.

Russia seized Urozhaine in the early days of the war that began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Ukrainian troops recaptured it almost a year ago. Russia’s Defense Ministry had claimed its army retook the village several days ago.

Russia has deployed devastating firepower as it pursues a summer offensive that has reduced towns and villages to ruins, denying Ukrainians defensive cover. Despite valiant defending, analysts say, Ukrainian forces are being pushed back in some places along the front line by the bigger and better equipped Kremlin army.

A map of Urozhaine:

Ukrainian firepower has improved since US lawmakers approved a much-needed military aid package this spring, but it is not yet arriving quickly enough to stop the Russian push, especially in Donetsk.

Leaders from across Europe met in England on Thursday to discuss European security and more help for Ukraine.

Kyiv is employing a bend-but-don’t-break strategy to buy time until it can get more Western weapons and ammunition to the front. By ceding some territory, Ukraine has been able to fight from better defended positions, army officials and analysts say.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukraine‘s frontline Donetsk region killed five civilians and injured three others on Thursday, damaging private houses and a residential building, prosecutors said.

A woman and her husband were killed in artillery shelling in the village of Pleshchiivka, the general prosecutor’s office said on Telegram.

Another three women were killed in a strike on private buildings in the village of Hrodivka, it added.

Separately, the Russian military dropped two guided bombs on the village of Velyka Novosilka, injuring a man and his wife inside their house, the prosecutors said. Another man was wounded in an artillery strike in the town of Zalizne, they added.

Donetsk region, which Russian troops partially occupy, regularly comes under Russian shelling and air strikes.

Moscow denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in its invasion of Ukraine, although thousands of people have been killed and injured in its attacks.