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| President Zelensky Claims To Reclaim 2,000 Kilometers Of Ukrainian Territory |
Kiev - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky celebrates the advance of his troops amid the ongoing large-scale offensive in the Kherson Region in the east of the country. “Our army's movement continues in different directions ahead.
To date, as part of active operations since early September, about 2,000 square kilometers of our territory have been liberated," he said in a video speech on Saturday night.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the withdrawal of its troops from various locations throughout the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense over the past three days, troops stationed in the area have been "redeployed" to the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic.
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"To achieve the objectives of the special military operation, the decision was made to regroup troops in the Balakleya and Izyum areas to build efforts towards Donetsk," the Russian military said in a statement.
Russia sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev's failure to implement the Minsk agreement, which was designed to give the Donetsk and Lugansk regions special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocol, brokered by Germany and France, was first signed in 2014.
Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev's main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and "create a strong armed force."
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republic as an independent state and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that would never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian attack was completely unwarranted.