Ukraine hailed its first substantial battlefield advances in six months on Monday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won pledges for new long-range drones from Britain to add to a haul of Western arms for a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.
Since last week, the Ukrainian military has started to push Russian forces back in and around the embattled city of Bakhmut, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.
"The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in the defence of Bakhmut," Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of Ground Forces, wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.