KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian troops are carrying out a counteroffensive against Russian forces on the eastern front, where Kyiv has reclaimed seven settlements, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday after visiting the Donetsk region.
“In fact, our forces are depriving the occupier (Russia) of the opportunity to carry out a full-fledged offensive operation, which they had been planning for a long time and counting on,” he said in a video address.
Ukrainian forces have taken back 160 square km (62 square miles) since the start of the operation, he said, adding that over 170 square km and another nine settlements had been “cleared of the occupiers”.
He did not specify when the operation began. He described fighting as heavy in the area of Dobropillia, an area that saw rapid Russian advances in mid-August, and around the hub of Pokrovsk.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield situation in the war raging since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Donetsk region, which is only partially occupied by Russia but which Moscow wants Kyiv to abandon before any peace settlement, remains the site of the most intense fighting.
On Thursday, a Russian guided bomb strike killed five civilians in Kostiantynivka, some 40 km (25 miles) from Dobropillia.
Russian forces have come within 8 km of the city, which has long served as a crucial logistics hub for Ukrainian troops defending a swath of the front line.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Alex Richardson and Timothy Heritage)
