Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Ukraine’s president says the country’s army has reclaimed around 2,000 kilometers of territory from Russian forces in Kharkiv amid reports of Russia’s redeployment of its forces from the northeastern region.
“For the moment, since the beginning of September, around 2,000 kilometers has been liberated,” Volodymir Zelensky said in an evening address on Saturday, adding, “There is no place in Ukraine for the occupiers. There never will be.”
According to Press TV, he did not specify whether he was talking about square kilometers, but on Thursday, the Ukrainian Army’s Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said their troops had recaptured 1,000 square kilometers (nearly 400 square miles) of territory from Russian forces.
“These last days, the Russian army has shown us its best (side) — its back,” Zelensky added. “After all, it’s a good choice for them to flee…There is no place in Ukraine for the occupiers. There never will be.”
Ukraine’s army announced a counteroffensive focusing on Kharkiv at the beginning of September.
As early as Friday, Kiev’s forces alleged scoring “major gains” there as part of the counteroffensive.
Russia began a “special military operation” in the ex-Soviet republic on February 24. Moscow said the operation was aimed at “demilitarizing” the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics.
Back in 2014, the two republics broke away from Ukraine, refusing to recognize a Western-backed Ukrainian government there that had overthrown a democratically-elected Russia-friendly administration.
Announcing the operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the mission was “defending people who for eight years are suffering persecution and genocide by the Kiev regime.”
