Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that his army has established control over 5000 square kilometers of Ukraine this year. In a meeting with military commanders, Putin asserted that Russia has the full strategic initiative on the battlefield. We have maintained our grip and Ukraine’s attempts to attack inside Russia will not change the situation.’ His statement came amid continuous drone attacks from both countries.
Putin said in a meeting with top military commanders on his birthday on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the front. He described the attacks by Ukraine on Russian territory as only their ‘disturbances’, which will not help change the situation in the war.
The Russian army’s chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, said that Russian forces were advancing in all directions, while the Ukrainian army was focused only on slowing down this advance. He added that the fiercest fighting was taking place in the areas towards Pokrovsk and Dnipropetrovsk.
Russian troops are advancing on the main cities of Siversk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, as well as clearing Ukrainian forces from Kupyansk in the northeast. In addition, they are also advancing on Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk in the south and are making progress in establishing buffer zones in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured two more Ukrainian villages. In this regard, Ukraine’s top commander stated that the front has now expanded to more than 1,250 kilometers. On the other hand, in August, the Ukrainian army described Russia’s offensive as a failure, as the Russian army had failed to capture any major Ukrainian cities this year.
