The Russian military operation in Ukraine continues today, Thursday, as Russian army units are extending full control over the liberated areas and targeting the positions of the Ukrainian forces, while Ukrainian forces push to retake cities conquered by Moscow.
In the latest developments, the Ukrainian army reported that it had recaptured 400 square kilometers in the south of the Kherson region in less than a week, while the Russian Defense Ministry announced control of the Zaitsevo region in Donetsk and the neutralization of more than 120 militarily Ukrainians.
“The Ukrainian military has liberated more than 400 square kilometers of the Kherson region since the beginning of October,” spokeswoman for the Southern Military Command Natalia Gumniuk said in an online statement.
For its part, the Russian military 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 have 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.
Earlier, Oleksandr Starukh, governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, said Russian bombing targeted the area at night and resulted in the demolition or destruction of several residential buildings, also resulting in fires and casualties. . He added that the bombing killed at least two people overnight, and caused several residential buildings to collapse or destroy and spread fires.
She wrote on the Telegram application: “A woman died in the attack and another person died on her way to hospital from seven Russian attacks. At least five are still under the rubble of buildings. Many people have been rescued, including which a three-year-old girl receiving the necessary care Operations The rescue continues.
Zaporizhia is one of the four Ukrainian regions declared annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who according to Ukraine will never accept the “illegal seizure of its territory by force”.
This was confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky His forces managed to retake many villages The so-called “false referendum areas in Kherson”.
The Ukrainian president has indicated that Russia is responsible for his actions and will be held accountable before the Ukrainian court and international law.
After the Ukrainian president announced that his army had made “swift and strong” progress in the south and recaptured “dozens” of cities from the Russians in the east, the British Defense Ministry, in turn, confirmed that Kiev had made tangible progress.
On the ground, the governor of the Kiev region said six drones hit a building in Bila Tserkva, about 75 kilometers south of the capital, Kiev.
Local officials reported that Iranian-made drones, often known as “suicide drones”, have launched multiple attacks on the city, causing several fires. Dozens of firefighters rushed to put it out.
On Wednesday, Russian President Putin confirmed this The military situation will stabilize in the Ukrainian territories annexed by Moscow Recently, despite the setbacks encountered by Russian forces in the face of the advance of the Ukrainian army.
Hours earlier, Kiev had announced that it was advancing to Lugansk in the east of the country after 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 attempt to change the situation on the front.
Putin signed a decree on Wednesday Russia officially acquires the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant In the south of 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 army confirmed Wednesday that it had carried out “intense attacks” in the past 24 hours near Lyman in the Donetsk region, a city recently conquered by Ukrainian forces. He added that Russian forces in the Kherson region “hold their positions and repel attacks from numerically superior enemy forces.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the annexed territories will remain Russian “forever” and that Moscow will recover the lost territories in a month.
Putin had promised to do everything to defend the annexed areas, including the use of nuclear weapons, a threat that did not stop either the Ukrainian counterattack or the transport of Western weapons to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the Russian military acknowledged the retreat of its forces and released maps showing that Moscow had withdrawn from an entire part of the northern Kherson region, as well as from the entire eastern bank of the Oskil River, the last area of Kharkiv which he still controlled.
