President Zelensky Claims Ukraine Has Retaken 745 Square Kilometers of Territory This Year

JAKARTA - Ukrainian forces have liberated 745 square kilometers (288 square miles) of territory previously occupied by Russia along the southeastern front line this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday.

He hailed the success as an operation that he said went "exactly as planned."

The Ukrainian military has sought to increase pressure on Moscow's war effort in recent months by launching counterattacks at a number of points along the 1,200-km front line as well as attacking logistics and energy infrastructure.

President Zelensky said 26 settlements in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions had again come under Kyiv's control.

The territories are located along the front line for about 60 km, right at the meeting point of the three territories' borders.

"Our offensive operation was carried out with precision - exactly as planned," he said on X while expressing his appreciation to the Kyiv air assault forces and other units, Al Arabiya reported from Reuters (13/8).

According to the battlefield map compiled by the Ukrainian open-source group DeepState, most of the territory is still a gray zone that is not fully controlled by any party. Other areas are marked as still under Russian control.

A video uploaded by the Ukrainian General Staff on Wednesday showed footage - mostly taken using drones - showing their troops waving Ukrainian flags over the liberated settlements. Reuters was not able to independently verify the video.

Meanwhile, analysts say Russian advances on the battlefield have slowed this year on most fronts, though their forces continue to close in on key towns in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

It is known that Moscow has demanded that Kyiv hand over the remaining Donetsk region, which is an industrial area, but Kyiv has rejected the demand.