Ukrainian special forces have struck Russian strongholds in the annexed Zaporizhzhia region, new footage appears to show, as fighting rumbles on across the southern front lines.
In a brief, night-vision clip posted to social media by Kyiv’s special-operations forces on Monday, several explosions can be seen, apparently filmed by an airborne drone. The Ukrainian military said one of its operators had discovered two Russian “strongholds” while conducting reconnaissance along the southern front lines.
Newsweek could not independently verify the footage, and has reached out to the Ukrainian military and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment on Monday via email.
The Zaporizhzhia region, which was annexed by Russia in September 2022, along with the Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk regions, has been the site of heavy fighting in the nearly two-year-old war. Moscow does not fully control these regions, and in its 2023 summer counteroffensive, Kyiv had hoped to peel back Russia’s grip through Zaporizhzhia, down to the Russian-controlled cities of Berdiansk and Melitopol and the Sea of Azov.
Throughout the long months of the counteroffensive effort, Ukraine reclaimed a smattering of villages in Zaporizhzhia, even though the sweeping gains through the south failed to materialize.
In the latest drone-filmed attack, the Ukrainian special forces fighters fired on the Russian positions with anti-aircraft guns, destroying Moscow’s equipment and killing the soldiers occupying those positions, Kyiv said.
“Finally, to once again remind the occupiers that this is Ukrainian land and they are here for a short time, the operators used a drone to plant a blue-yellow flag at the site of the destroyed enemy strongholds,” the special forces added.
In the clip, an aerial drone can be seen carrying a billowing flag through the air, before the uncrewed vehicle drops it. A separate shot, filmed in daylight, then appears to show the same flag upright in the earth.
Elena Tita/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
On Monday, Yuriy Malashko, the Ukrainian head of Zaporizhzhia’s regional military administration, said Russian forces had attacked 18 settlements in Zaporizhzhia in the past 24 hours.
Moscow attacked the villages of Robotyne and Mala Tokmachka with multiple rocket launchers, Malashko said. He added that Russia carried out several dozen drone attacks on several front-line villages in the region.
There were no confirmed losses or gains across the frontline on the Zaporizhzhia border with Donetsk on Sunday, according to the U.S. independent think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Ukrainian forces reportedly made an advance in western Zaporizhzhia, west of Robotyne, the think tank added, although it could not independently verify this information.
On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had taken out 30 Ukrainian fighters, three pickup trucks and a Ukrainian howitzer in two villages in the Zaporizhzhia region in the past day, including around Robotyne. This was the site of fierce clashes during Ukraine’s counteroffensive, and Kyiv officials said Ukraine had retaken the village in late August 2023.
The Zaporizhzhia region is also home to Europe’s largest nuclear-power facility, which has been precariously placed on the front lines since the early days of the war, prompting fears of a nuclear accident.
The situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, southwest of the city of Zaporizhzhia, remains worrying with very real potential dangers of a major accident, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said on Friday.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.