The Ukrainian military has said it is "smoothly but confidently" gaining ground against Russian forces in "one of the most important logistical arteries" of Ukraine's partially occupied Luhansk region.
The Strategic Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Telegram post on September 22 that Russian occupying forces are "having a bad time" near Lysychansk, a city in the eastern Luhansk region.
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Luhansk, part of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and one of four Russian-controlled territories that are set to hold disputed votes for annexation into the Russian Federation beginning on September 23, is nearly under the complete control of Russian forces. Ukraine and its allies have said that such votes would be illegal.
Kyiv's forces have in recent weeks regained territory in the east that was captured by Russia shortly after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February.
Serhiy Hayday, the Ukrainian military governor of the Luhansk region, said on September 19 that Ukrainian forces had liberated some villages in the region. On September 21, Hayday said that a command office used by occupying forces had been destroyed by the Ukrainian military in Svatovo, which is about 160 kilometers northwest of the regional capital, Luhansk.
Elsewhere, Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged missile and artillery barrages that killed at least six people on September 22.
Russian strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya left one person dead and five wounded, according to Ukrainian officials.
Officials in Russia-controlled territory in the Donetsk region said that Ukrainian shelling targeting the regional capital, Donetsk, killed five people.