This year, the Ukrainian army regained control of 600 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, said its commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. The Reuters agency wrote that this is another indication of a change in the dynamics of the war that Russia unleashed in February 2022. In May, Ukraine controlled 100 square kilometers more than it lost, Syrskyj also pointed out.
He did not specify where the Ukrainian army had advanced, saying only that it continued to maintain the initiative in some sections of the 1,200-kilometer front line.
Even the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi he said last month that Ukraine had regained control of about 600 square kilometers of territory this year.
Reuters writes that the claims of Ukrainian officials cannot be verified. It is difficult to determine exactly which of the opposing sides controls a certain territory in the areas near the front, because the extensive use of drones has created a wide “death zone” around it. Even so, independent groups monitoring the battlefield have reported in recent months that the Russian advance has slowed or that Ukrainian forces have turned the tide in their favor. This is happening for the first time since the unsuccessful Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023.
Syrskyi said that Russian troops are still trying to advance in the east and south of Ukraine and that the number of clashes on the battlefield has increased significantly. According to him, the situation at the front is “difficult and dynamic”.
According to him, the most intense fighting is near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, which Russia is trying to completely occupy from mid-2024. The independent DeepState project has been marking Pokrovsk as a place fully occupied by Russian forces on its map showing the situation on the front for several weeks. Moscow claims it took control of it last December. In the neighboring Zaporozhye region, the fiercest fighting is taking place near Huljajpol, Syrskyj also said.
