While progress continues Ukrainian forces In the east of the country, at the expense of Russian forces, following the counterattack launched last week, a senior US military official said on Monday that RussiaAccording to US estimates, he has largely given up on his conquests near Kharkiv and that many of the retreating Russian soldiers have left Ukraine and crossed the border into their country.
“Overall, our assessment is that the Ukrainians are making progress as they are fighting to liberate and reclaim the southern and eastern territories,” added the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
He also said: “In the camp near Kharkiv, we estimate that Russian forces have largely given up their earnings to the Ukrainians and retreated north and east … Many of these soldiers have crossed the border into Russia.” .
‘Keep going on’
This comes when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Monday that his army has reclaimed some 6,000 square kilometers of his country’s territory from Russian forces since he launched his counterattack in early September.
“Since the beginning of September, our soldiers have cleared 6,000 square kilometers of land in eastern and southern Ukraine,” he said in a video recording, which he posted on social networks. “We are continuing to advance,” she said in a video recording.
The Ukrainian president also praised the “courage” of three military units that participated in this operation, which resulted in the biggest gains on the ground for Ukraine since the withdrawal of Russian forces from the outskirts of Kiev at the end of March.
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A Russian armored car hijacked by the Ukrainian army during the counter-offensive in Kharkiv – Reuters
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counterattack
The Ukrainian army had initially announced the launch of a counterattack in the south of the country, but last week made rapid progress in the Kharkiv region on the border with Russia in the north-east of the country, forcing Russian soldiers to retreat.
The Ukrainian army confirmed the results obtained in the Russian-occupied Kherson region (south), on the border with the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and in the areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
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