The Russian military operation in Ukraine continues today, Thursday, as units of the Russian army are extending full control over the liberated areas and striking the positions of the Ukrainian forces, while Ukrainian forces push to retake cities captured by Moscow.
In the latest developments, the Ukrainian army reported that it regained 400 square kilometers in the south of the Kherson region in less than a week, while the Russian Defense Ministry announced the control of the Zaitsevo region in Donetsk, and the neutralization of more than 120 Ukrainians militarily.
“The Ukrainian armed forces have liberated more than 400 square kilometers of the Kherson region since the beginning of October,” the spokeswoman for the Southern Military Command, Natalia Gumniuk, said in an online statement.
For its part, the Russian army confirmed in its daily report that “the enemy has been removed from the line of defense of the Russian forces” in the same area. He added that Ukrainian forces deployed four tactical battalions on this front, that is, hundreds of men, and “tried several times to break through the Russian defenses” near Dudchany, Sukhanovy, Sadok and Proskinskoye.
Before that, Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, said that Russian bombing targeted the area during the night and caused the demolition or destruction of several residential buildings, which also led to the outbreak of fires and casualties. He added that the bombing killed at least two people during the night, and caused the collapse or destruction of several residential buildings and the outbreak of widespread fires.
He wrote on the Telegram application: “A woman died in the bombing, and another person died on the way to the hospital due to seven Russian strikes. At least five are still under the rubble of buildings. Many people have been rescued, including a three-year-old girl receiving the required care. Operations The rescue continues.
Zaporizhia is one of four Ukrainian regions declared annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Ukraine says will never accept the “unlawful seizure of its territory by force”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that His forces managed to recapture many villages The so-called “fake referendum areas in Kherson”.
The Ukrainian president indicated that Russia is responsible for its actions and will be held accountable before the Ukrainian court and international law.
After the Ukrainian president announced that his army had made “rapid and strong” progress in the south and had recaptured “dozens” of towns from the Russians in the east, the British Ministry of Defense, in turn, confirmed that Kyiv had made tangible progress.
On the ground, the governor of the Kyiv region said that six drones struck a building in Bila Tserkva, regarding 75 kilometers south of the capital, Kyiv.
Local officials reported that Iranian-made drones, often known as “suicide drones,” launched multiple strikes on the town, causing several fires. Dozens of firefighters rushed to put it out.
On Wednesday, Russian President Putin confirmed that The military situation will stabilize in the Ukrainian territories annexed by Moscow Recently, despite the setbacks faced by the Russian forces in the face of the advance of the Ukrainian army.
Hours earlier, Kyiv announced that it was advancing in Lugansk in the east of the country, following making gains in Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast.
“We assume that the situation will stabilize and that we will be able to develop these areas peacefully,” Putin said, noting that on September 21 he issued an order to mobilize hundreds of thousands of reservists in an effort to change the situation on the front.
On Wednesday, Putin signed a decree Russia officially acquires the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant In southern Ukraine.
Despite the retreat of his forces, Vladimir Putin also signed the law to annex Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and partially occupied Zaporizhia.
For its part, the Russian military confirmed Wednesday that it had carried out “intense strikes” during the past 24 hours near Lyman in the Donetsk region, a town recently captured by Ukrainian forces. He added that the Russian forces in the Kherson region “maintain their positions and repel the attacks of the enemy forces that are numerically superior.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the annexed territories would remain Russian “forever” and that Moscow would recover the territories it had lost over a month.
Putin had vowed to do everything to defend the annexed areas, including the use of nuclear weapons, a threat that neither stopped the Ukrainian counterattack nor the shipment of Western weapons to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the Russian army acknowledged the retreat of its forces and published maps showing that Moscow had withdrawn from an entire part of the northern Kherson region as well as from all of the eastern bank of the Oskil River, the last area in Kharkiv that it still controlled.