KYIV, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine's military has recaptured more territory from Russian forces in the north of the Donetsk region, a senior military commander said on Monday, in an operation aimed at complicating Moscow's assault on Ukraine's key eastern strongholds.
Ukraine's Third Army Corps recaptured an area of 51 square kilometres (20 square miles), said Brigadier-General Andrii Biletskyi, who has commanded operations in the area since last month.
In total, the operation called "Vivaldi" has recaptured 176 sq km in the north of Donetsk, has freed three more villages and has restored Ukrainian control over two more villages, Biletskyi said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, has said the operation has achieved the "operationally-significant" goal of disrupting Moscow's effort to conduct a wide encirclement of the "fortress belt" of Ukrainian cities.
Russia's overall frontline advances have slowed this year but its forces have been bearing down on the cities from the south and infiltrating deeper into the eastern city of Kostiantynivka.
The Donetsk region has seen most of the fiercest battles of the war.
Ukraine still holds about 20% of Donetsk while Russia wants to control all of it — Moscow's main territorial demand at negotiations that have so far stalled but which the US wants to restart.
The reported gains in the Donetsk region would add to Ukraine's push earlier this year in the southeast, where Kyiv said it clawed back more than 700 sq km of territory during a months-long counterattack.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka in GdanskEditing by Gareth Jones)
