Ukrainian forces have stepped up their counteroffensive in the east of the country, military officials said on Wednesday, aided by low temperatures they froze the ground and allowed them to use vehicles that had been stuck in mud for weeks.

Serhiy Haidai, head of the military administration of the almost entirely Russian-controlled Luhansk region, said heavy fighting had broken out near two small towns, Kreminna and Svatove.

As Ukrainian forces gradually advanced towards Svatove, Haidai said on messaging app Telegram that “the liberation of every meter of Luhansk comes at a high price” as Russian forces were drawing on reserves of equipment and personnel as well as newly mobilized troops. .

The capture of the two cities and a third, Starobilsk, would build on gains made by Ukrainian forces during a rapid counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region in September and could allow them to push towards the Russian border.

It would also give them control of a triangle of routes giving access to two larger cities further south, Sievierodonetsk and Lisychansk, which fell to Moscow over the summer.

Those larger cities were the target of the campaign, Haidai said, adding that Ukrainian forces were already in a position to fire on Russian forces on the road between Kreminna and Svatove.

There was no independent confirmation of the military situation.

Russia has held land in two eastern Ukrainian oblasts, Luhansk and Donetsk, since 2014 and illegally annexed the region, known as Donbass, in October. Ukraine’s ultimate goal of the war is to recapture all the territory that Russia has seized.

Although the arrival of winter is exacerbating the misery of people with limited access to heat and electricity due to Russian airstrikes on infrastructure, it could be a blessing for the Ukrainian army.

“The cold and frozen ground will allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to increase the pace of their counter-offensive in the east of the country,” Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Armed Forces, told Ukrainian television this week.

The maximum temperature in Luhansk on Wednesday was 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 degrees Celsius).

There hasn’t been much progress in the war since mid-November, when andThe Kremlin has withdrawn its forces from the southern city of Kherson in a significant victory for Ukraine.

But the fighting and artillery barrages have been going on for weeks.

Haidai said on Monday that the Ukrainian soldiers shot down a Russian helicopter in the area of ​​Svatove and Kreminna on Sunday.

The Ukrainian Air Force posted a video of the incident on Facebook on Monday, but it could not immediately confirm the attack independently.

Military experts have analyzed satellite images which they say show Russian forces are building defensive barriers designed to impede Ukrainian advances and protect the ground they hold.

As a further sign of the fierce fighting, the main hospital in the city of Luhansk is filled with wounded Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian military administration reported on Telegram on Wednesday.

Bombing along the front line continues to kill and injure civilians.

Three people were injured in Donetsk province on Tuesday, the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram on Wednesday.

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