Ukrainian forces liberated a key village in the southern region of Kherson, causing another Russian military retreat. The Ukrainian defense ministry posted a video showing a military brigade raising a Ukrainian flag over Davydiv Brid, among reports of other nearby villages being recaptured. 

Russian forces have been forced to retreat in the north-eastern region of Ukraine, and are now being pushed back in the south as well. These setbacks for Russia came as President Vladimir Putin signed decrees annexing four Ukrainian regions. The annexation has no international legitimacy and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared them null and void. Russia still controls Kherson city, the regional capital in the south. Ukrainian forces have pushed south in the past 48 hours and have forced Russia to pull back from several regions in both the southern and northern edges of the Kherson region. Ukraine’s deputy interior minister Yevhen Enin said 50 towns and villages have been recaptured in Kherson, but did not specify a time period.

Read More: Ukraine regains Kherson villages from Russians