Moscow (TDI): President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday claimed that Russian forces had captured close to 5,000 square kilometres of territory in Ukraine this year and now hold full strategic control of the battlefield.
Speaking at a meeting with senior military commanders on his 73rd birthday, Putin said Russian troops had forced Ukrainian units to retreat across multiple fronts. He added that while Kyiv was attempting to strike targets deeper inside Russia, those actions would not alter the situation on the ground in the war, which has entered its fourth year, Reuters reported.
“At this time, the Russian armed forces fully hold the strategic initiative,” Putin told the gathering near St. Petersburg, according to a Kremlin transcript. “This year we have liberated nearly 5,000 square kilometres of territory, 4,900, to be precise, and 212 localities.”
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Putin said Ukrainian troops were falling back “along the entire line of contact,” despite what he described as “fierce resistance.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry later announced the capture of two more villages, part of a front that now stretches more than 1,250 kilometres (775 miles), according to Ukrainian estimates.
While Putin celebrated his military’s advances, Kyiv’s officials have rejected Moscow’s narrative, calling recent Russian offensives “largely unsuccessful.” Ukraine’s military says its forces have made modest gains around Dobropillia, near the vital logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, and have also reclaimed ground in the Sumy border area.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukrainian forces are continuing counterattacks in several directions despite the intensity of Russian strikes.
Meanwhile, Russia’s top military commander, General Valery Gerasimov, told Tuesday’s meeting that Russian troops were advancing “in practically all directions,” pointing to heavy fighting near Pokrovsk and towards Dnipropetrovsk.
He said operations were ongoing around Siversk and Kostyantynivka in Donetsk, while efforts were under way to push Ukrainian forces out of Kupiansk in the northeast and to gain further ground in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
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Gerasimov also said Russian units were working to create buffer zones in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions to protect border areas.
Putin reiterated that Russia’s goals in Ukraine remain unchanged from when he launched the invasion in February 2022, the so-called “special military operation” aimed at “demilitarising and denazifying” Ukraine.
