Ukraine reclaims processing plant seized by Russia

Kiev. Ukrainian troops engaged in hand-to-hand fighting as they drove Russian forces out of a massive processing plant in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Vovchansk that had been occupied for four months, officials said Tuesday.

The plant, a partly steel structure with about 30 buildings, had been a Russian stronghold in the Kharkiv border region since May, when Russia sought to further strain depleted Ukrainian forces by launching a new offensive in the area.

The recovery of the plant was likely intended to demonstrate that Ukraine is not giving up despite being outnumbered and outgunned by the Russian army. The achievement coincided with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to the United States, where he is seeking to secure continued foreign support for his country as the war enters its third year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to dampen Ukraine’s appetite for fighting and undermine Western support for kyiv by prolonging the conflict. Russian forces have made steady advances on the battlefield this year, but the cost has been no small feat. The Defense Ministry estimates that more than 1,000 Russian soldiers are killed or wounded every day.

A statement from Ukrainian military intelligence said its units recaptured the Vovchansk plant after fierce fighting “in conditions of dense construction.”

The Russian onslaught has reduced Vovchansk, and many other Ukrainian towns and villages, to smoldering piles of rubble and bombed-out residential buildings.

Ukraine’s reckless incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces are holding out, was launched in part to relieve pressure in the northeast, forcing the Kremlin to divert its forces.

Russia is waging a war of attrition, relentlessly shelling towns and cities as it tries to punch holes in Ukrainian defenses at locations along the 1,000-kilometer front line, especially in the eastern Donbas region.

In Kharkiv, the regional capital, at least three people were killed and 28 wounded in a Russian glider bomb attack on Tuesday, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.