President Putin Says Russia Has Seized Nearly 5 Thousand Square Kilometers Of Ukraine Region

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Source: Kremlin)

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, Russian troops had seized nearly 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) of territory in Ukraine by 2025 and maintained full strategic initiatives on the battlefield.

Russia's acquisition by 2025 will reach nearly 1 percent of Ukraine's territory, and the country controls nearly 20 percent in total.

Convicted in a meeting with top Russian military commanders on his 73rd birthday, President Putin said Ukrainian forces were stepping down in all front-line sectors.

He said Kyiv was trying to attack deep into Russian territory, but that would not help change the situation in the war that had lasted more than 3.5 years.

"Currently, the Russian armed forces are fully holding strategic initiatives," President Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

"This year, we have freed nearly 5,000 square km of the region - 4,900 - and 212 locations," he explained.

The Kremlin leadership said Russia's goal remains the same as when it launched a "special military operation" in February 2022, namely to "demilitate and denazify" its neighboring countries.

Ukrainian troops, he said, were "resigning along combat contact lines, despite fierce resistance efforts."

Meanwhile, the Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces General Valery Gerasimov said in a meeting of high-ranking commanders, Russian forces were "forward in almost all directions." Ukrainian forces, he said, focused on slowing the pace of Russia.

General Gerasimov said the toughest fighting was hitting Pokrovsk and the areas leading to Dnipropximsk.

Moscow troops are moving towards key cities of Siversk and Kostyantynivka in the main area of the Donetsk region.

General Gerasimov said they were clearing Ukrainian troops from the city of Kupiansk, which had been attacked by Russia for months in northeastern Ukraine, and moving forward in the more distant areas of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropxisk to the south.

They are also building buffer zones in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north.

Russia's Ministry of Defense on Tuesday reported the seizure of two more villages along the front lines, which Ukraine's top commander now stretches more than 1,250 km (775 miles).

Separately, the Ukrainian military in August considered Russia's recent attack a failure, with Moscow forces failing to capture a single major Ukrainian city this year.

The Ukrainian report says Kyiv forces have made progress in the Donetsk region, particularly around Dobropillia, a town near Pokrovsk's main logistics hub.

President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Ukrainian forces had reclaimed territory in Sumy's border region, where Russia had established a foothold.