KYIV, June 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Sunday its troops had recaptured three villages from Russian forces in its southeast, the first liberated settlements it has reported since launching a counter-offensive this week.

• Ukrainian soldiers lift flag in bombed village building

• Kyiv hails advance as first fruit of counter-offensive

• Russia confirms Ukraine’s long-awaited push underway

Soldiers hoisted the Ukrainian flag at a bombed-out building in an unverified video published by Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade, which identified the settlement as Blahodatne in Donetsk region.

“We’re seeing the first results of the counter-offensive actions, localized results,” Valeryi Shershen, spokesperson for Ukraine’s “Tavria” military sector, said on television.

He said the village of Blahodatne lay on the edge of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzia regions a few kilometres south of the Kyiv-controlled village of Velyka Novosilka.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar later said in a statement Kyiv’s forces had also retaken Makarivka, the next village along, advancing bewteen 300 and 1,500 metres along two directions on the southern front.

A Ukrainian territorial defence unit also posted unverified footage on Telegram of its soldiers holding up their flag in Neskuchne, the village that had been closest to Ukrainian positions in the area.

“No positions were lost on the directions where our forces are on the defensive,” Maliar added.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday gave his strongest signal yet that Kyiv has launched its long-awaited counterattack to seize back land in the east and south, confirming that “counteroffensive and defensive operations” were taking place.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that a Ukrainian military push was well underway, but that it had failed so far to breach Russian defensive lines and taken heavy casualties.

Kyiv officials have imposed a strict period of operational silence and urged Ukrainians not to disclose any information that could compromise the operation.