Ukraine Claims Major Gains From Russia

Ukrainian forces have retaken 745 sq km of Russian-occupied territory on the southeastern front this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday. He said the offensive operation had been carried out with precision and had gone exactly as planned.

Twenty-six settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions along an approximately 60 km stretch of the front where the three regions meet have returned to Ukrainian control.

The Ukrainian General Staff released footage that it said showed troops raising Ukrainian flags in the retaken settlements, although Reuters could not independently verify the footage. A map published by the Ukrainian open-source group DeepState indicates that much of the area remains in a grey zone, with neither side in full control, while some territory is still marked as Russian-controlled.

Military analysts say that although Russia’s advances have slowed across much of the front this year, its forces are still closing in on key cities in the eastern Donetsk region.

(Reuters, Max)