Ukraine says its marines have fortified a captured river bank, letting them smack the Russians

• Ukrainian marines are fortifying a captured river bank amid heavy Russian fire, an official said.
• Serhiy Bratchuk said Ukrainian marines are hitting back from the eastern bank, per Espreso TV.

Ukrainian marines have barricaded their positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and are striking back against Russian forces there, according to a Ukrainian official.

Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian volunteer army and head of Odesa's Regional Military Administration, told Ukraine's Espreso TV station that marines have held onto the bridgeheads they secured on the eastern bank, in the village of Krynky.

"The Marines are not only holding, but at present we can speak of counter-battery battles, not just firing from the right bank but from the left bank as well," Bratchuk said, per a translation by the Kyiv Post.

He added that Ukraine's 501st Separate Marine Battalion on Sunday destroyed an unspecified number of Russian trucks on an axis separating the towns of Oleshky and Nova Kakhovka on the eastern side of the Dnipro River — another sign of their strengthened positions.

On Sunday, army spokesperson Natalia Gumenyuk told Ukrainian television that their soldiers had pushed back Russian forces up to five miles from the bank of the river, per AFP.

It would be a rare success for Ukrainian troops, who have struggled to take control of the territory, as Business Insider's Alia Shoaib previously reported.

Russian military bloggers also confirmed Ukraine's advances, saying that Ukrainian troops are expanding their control in the western part of Krynky, according to the Washington DC-based Institute for the Study of War.

In a speech at the Hudson Institute last week, Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian president, said Ukraine's forces had gained a "foothold" on the eastern bank of the Dnipro and covered 70% of the distance separating them from Crimea.

Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Defence said Tuesday that it has sent Su-34 fighter-bombers to support ground forces in southern Donetsk.

In a separate Telegram post, the ministry claimed that Ukraine's offensives had come at a heavy cost for Ukraine, with 75 military personnel dead.

Bratchuk acknowledged that counteroffensives in the region would not be made without losses, but he said holding the Dnipro bridgehead was necessary to protect the troops, per the Kyiv Post translation.