theme sentence: All eyes are on Ukraine’s counteroffensive after its armed forces claimed to have liberated four front-line villages in the eastern Donetsk region. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister NAME_1 said Sunday that the villages of Blahodatne and Makarivka had been de-occupied and on Monday added Storozheve to the list of liberated settlements. In the Bakhmut area, Ukrainian troops are continuing to conduct assault actions, NAME_2 said, with gains recorded there. Another Ukrainian brigade posted on Facebook that it gained control of the village of Neskuchne in Donetsk. Ukraine’s government has consistently said there would be no public announcement of the start of the offensive, but last weekend, President NAME_3 finally confirmed that counteroffensive and defensive actions had indeed begun. That came after Russian President NAME_4 said Friday that Ukrainian forces had so far failed in their counteroffensive but that the “offensive potential” of Ukraine had not been undermined yet. In response, NAME_5 said Saturday that “it’s interesting that NAME_6 said [that] about our counter offensive. It is important that Russia always feels it, that they do not have much time left, in my opinion. Defensive counter-attacks are taking place in Ukraine — at what stage I will not say in detail.” Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Telegram that 42 people, including seven children, are still missing following the attack on the Kakhovka dam last week, according to an NBC News translation. The ministry added that at least 10 people have died as a result of the explosion at the dam and the subsequent flooding in the region. According to the data collected by the agency, more than 3,800 houses were flooded in the Kherson region. There should be exactly 4 paragraphs separated by the markdown divider: ***.
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