Ukrainian authorities announced this Sunday that their forces had retaken the town of Klishchiivka, in Donetsk province, in eastern Ukraine.   "Klishchiivka was cleared of Russians," Oleksander Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian army's ground forces, said on social media.   "Klishchiivka is Ukraine, I am grateful to the soldiers for vacating Ukrainian land," said Andriy Yarmak, chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the AFP news agency.   Later, in his traditional afternoon speech, Zelensky praised the soldiers fighting the Russians near Bakhmut and highlighted those who had retaken Klishchiivka.   "Well done!" he said.   The president also assured that "new defense solutions are being prepared for Ukraine," without giving details.   "Air defense and artillery are the priority," Zelensky said.   Meanwhile, the spokesman for Ukrainian troops in the east, Ilya Yevlakh, said that the capture of Klishchiivka could help kyiv's army surround Bakhmut.   "Now we have gained preparation ground, which in the future will allow us to continue developing offensive actions and liberate our land from the occupiers," he said on national television.   The town, which lies south of the city of Bakhmut, was home to several hundred people before Moscow's intervention last year and was then captured by Russian troops in January.   The announcement came after the Ukrainian military said on Friday that the village of Andriivka, also located south of Bakhmut, had been retaken.   A day later, Russia denied that its forces had been expelled from that town.   Ukraine began a counteroffensive in the south and east of the country in June after stockpiling Western weapons and recruiting assault battalions.   Bakhmut, a town with about 70,000 inhabitants before the war, was captured by Russian forces - where the presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group was crucial - in May after one of the longest and bloodiest battles since the Russian invasion.   For his part, the chief of the United States General Staff, General Mark Milley, stated, in an interview broadcast this Sunday, that the Ukrainian counteroffensive "has not failed," but the path to a definitive victory for Kiev in the conflict with Russia is still very long.   "I know that some observers say that this offensive has failed, it has not failed," the general told CNN television. to rally support.   Zelensky will be received at the White House on Thursday by President Joe Biden.   This trip comes as the US Congress debates a new $24 billion in military aid for kyiv.   The Ukrainian president would also meet at the Capitol with Republican and Democratic leaders in parliament.