Ukrainian forces retake 6,000 square kilometers of their homeland – and thousands of Russian prisoners of war, reports claim | World News

Ukrainian forces have recaptured 6,000 square kilometers of their homeland – 3,000 of them in the past six days alone, it has been reported.

And in his nightly address to his nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “the advance of our forces” was continuing.

His claims appear to be supported by a prominent think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based group that provides research and analysis on defense and foreign affairs.

It said that Ukraine’s counterattack in the Kharkiv region was “directing Russian forces and collapsing Russia’s northern Donbas axis”.

It continued: “Russian forces are not conducting a controlled withdrawal and are rushing to flee southeast Kharkiv Oblast (an administrative region) to escape the encirclement around Izyum.”

A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence said the Russian troops surrendered immediately because “they understood their hopeless situation” and an adviser to President Zelenskyy said there were many prisoners of war, The country is running out of space to accommodate them.

It is claimed that the Ukrainian army liberated more than 20 settlements in 24 hours.

In recent days, Kyiv’s forces have captured territory at least twice the size of London, according to the British Ministry of Defense.

“From the beginning of September until now, our soldiers have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of
Ukraine’s territory to the south and east,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video.

He said he thanked the soldiers for “going forward very bravely, with great confidence” and “steadily moving forward despite everything – despite the character of the open terrain, despite the occupying artillery artillery. close.

“Guys, you guys are real heroes!” he added.

All updates on the Ukraine war – live

After months of unclear movements on the battlefield, the momentum lifted Ukrainians and sparked rare public criticism of Russian President Putin’s war.

Russian military bloggers and patriotic commentators have criticized the Kremlin for not mobilizing more forces and taking stronger action.

Russia has repeatedly stopped calling its invasion a war, describing it instead as a “special military operation”.

Across Ukrainejubilant mood.

In Kharkiv, the region’s second-largest city and capital, has achieved much, with authorities saying electricity and water have been restored to about 80 percent of the region’s population following the attacks. Russia entered the infrastructure overnight, causing power outages in many places. .

Witness: The body was rotting as one describes the neighbor’s burial – life in a liberated village

Ukrainian forces are said to have pushed back all the way back to the northeastern border in several places, forcing the Russians into a hasty retreat.

There were reports of chaos as the Russian army withdrew.

Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of Zaliznychne, a small town near the east, recently said: “The Russians are here in the morning. frontline, told Sky News.

Video taken by the Ukrainian military shows soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag above buildings damaged by the fighting.

In one scene, a boxer wipes his boots on a Russian flag on the ground. Other videos show Ukrainians examining the wreckage of Russian military vehicles, including tanks.

Ukrainian teams are disarming mines and other unexploded weapons in recaptured areas and searching for any remaining Russian troops, officials said.

However, defense experts have warned the war in Ukraine has subsided and flowed in recent months.