Ukraine has said that its forces had retaken Klishchiivka, a tactically important town south of the key frontline city of Bakhmut, as it pursues a counter-attack against Russia's grinding offensive against the country.
Battlefield victories are especially important for Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares his second wartime visit to Washington next week in a bid to rally support.
"Klishchiivka was cleared of Russians," Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of the Ukrainian military's ground forces, posted on social media.
Mr Zelensky praised the soldiers fighting near Bakhmut and singled out those who had retaken Klishchiivka, saying "Well done!" in his evening address to the nation.
He also said that Kyiv was "preparing new defence solutions for Ukraine", saying that "air defence and artillery are the priority", without providing details.
Klishchiivka, which was home to several hundred people before Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022, was captured by Russian troops in January.
Ilya Yevlash, spokesman for Ukrainian troops in the east, said that control over Klishchiivka could help the Ukrainian army encircle Bakhmut, captured by Russian forces in May after one of the war's longest and bloodiest battles.
"We have now gained a staging ground, which will in the future allow us to continue to develop offensive actions and liberate our land from the occupiers," Yevlash said in a televised statement.
The claimed recovery of Klishchiivka came after Ukraine's armed forces said Friday that the village of Andriivka, also located south of the eastern city of Bakhmut, had been retaken.
Yesterday, Russia denied its forces had been pushed out of the frontline village.
Kyiv began pushing back against Moscow's forces in the south and east of the country in June after building up Western weapons and recruiting assault battalions.
Ukrainian forces initially focussed on the northern and southern flanks of Bakhmut and have since been posting incremental gains.
Earlier, Russia launched a combined drone and missile attack on Ukraine early today, targeting chiefly the southern parts of the Odesa region and hitting an agriculture facility there, Ukraine's Air Forces said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia launched six Iranian-made Shahed drones and 10 cruise missiles, with Ukraine's forces destroying six drones and six missiles before they hit their target, the Air Force said.
The situation in Odesa and its ports has been watched carefully by grain markets, as Kyiv said yesterday that two cargo vessels arrived there to use a temporary corridor to sail into Black Sea ports and load grain for African and Asian markets.
"Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups and other means of attack were involved in repelling the air attack," the Air Force said.
The extent of the damage was not immediately known and it was not clear what facility was hit. The Air Force said only that emergency services were on the site.
Reuters could not independently verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Russia.
The entire territory of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for several hours.
Ukraine last month announced a "humanitarian corridor" in the Black Sea to release ships trapped in its ports since the start of the war in February 2022 and to circumvent a de facto blockade after Russia abandoned a deal to let Kyiv export grain.
