Ukraine said on Monday its troops were advancing in the east and south of the country and signaled they were tightening the noose around Russian troops occupying the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops in Kiev recovered 10.2 square kilometers of territory in the south and four square kilometers in the east last week in a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Ukrainian forces also took control of key command elevations around Bakhmut and established fire control on entrances and exits to the destroyed city, he said on messaging app Telegram.
The Ukrainian military said its troops had already recaptured 169 square kilometers on the southern front and 24 square kilometers around Bakhmut since the start of the counter-offensive early last month.
“We all want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians. We are moving forward. We are not stuck,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told American television network ABC ahead of a NATO summit in Lithuania on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We all would like the counter-offensive to take place in a shorter time. But the reality is. Today the initiative is on our side”.
Reuters could not verify the situation on the battlefield and Russia did not recognize the Ukrainian gains. Moscow says fighting has been intense since the counteroffensive began, but it still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine following its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
Pro-Moscow Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said one of his units was stationed in the Bakhmut area. Russian reports in recent days suggested that Kadyrov, whose forces have been active since the start of the war, was either ill or wounded or “on vacation”.
Source: Terra
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