(Reuters) -Russian forces are waging a non-stop offensive along almost the entire front line in Ukraine and have the “strategic initiative”, the chief of Russia’s general staff said on Saturday.
“The combined group of troops continue a non-stop offensive along almost the entire front line,” General Valery Gerasimov told his deputies in an address published by the Defence Ministry. “At present, the strategic initiative lies entirely with Russian forces.”
Russia has stepped up airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front lines this summer and has continued a grinding offensive across much of the east, trying to gain more territory in its 3-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Thursday killed at least 23 people and wounded 38, Ukrainian officials said.
The strikes took place less than two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, a meeting that Washington had hoped would advance his efforts to end the conflict.
Moscow denies targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians have been killed in Russian strikes on densely populated areas in recent months, and thousands since the start of the war.
Gerasimov said Russia had carried out 76 targeted strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial facilities this spring and summer, with a focus on destroying sites where long-range missile systems and drones are produced.
Gerasimov said Moscow was now in control of 99.7% of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, 79% of the eastern Donetsk region, 74% of the Zaporizhzhia region and 76% of the Kherson region.
Since March, Russia has captured more than 3,500 square km (1,351 square miles) of Ukrainian territory and taken control of 149 villages, he said.
Russian forces this month have begun pressing into Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, open-source maps show. Gerasimov said seven villages in the region were now under Russian control.
Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the battlefield.
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Additional reporting by Anastasiia Malenko, Editing by Gareth Jones and Timothy Heritage)
Comments