Ukraine offensive: BBC visits village liberated from Russian control

[Social Media]

The BBC was among the first media organisations to gain access to some of the first villages liberated in Ukraine's counteroffensive.

Out of this cluster of four settlements in the eastern Donetsk region, Neskuchne has seen the heaviest fighting according to the battalion which liberated it. Ukraine lost six soldiers in the process.

Its name means "not boring" in Ukrainian.

An obvious irony for a village that was occupied by Russia in spring last year - a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It was at the most northern point of a protruding Russian front line.

As our army escort, Anatoliy, speeds along scarred roads in his camouflaged truck towards Neskuchne, it's clear this is a different kind of liberation to what we saw last year.

 

Firstly there are no civilians here. The only remnants of civilisation come in the form of a blown out pharmacy and food store.

There isn't a complex network of trenches either. A makeshift wooden bridge over a river is all it takes to take us into territory Russia has held for so long.