Around "2,000 kilometres of Ukraine's territory" has been liberated, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday amid an ongoing seven-month-long war with Russia whose troops invaded the East-European country on February 24, leading to a major escalation of tensions between the two nations. His remarks came hours after Russia said it was pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, the country's second-largest city, where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week.
A total blackout in the Kharkiv & Donetsk regions, a partial one in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk & Sumy regions. RF terrorists remain terrorists & attack critical infrastructure. No military facilities, the goal is to deprive people of light & heat. #RussiaIsATerroristState
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 11, 2022
Zelenskyy, who made the remarks in his evening address, did not specify if he was talking about square kilometres. However, on Thursday, the army's commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi had said their troops had recaptured 1,000 square kilometres (nearly 400 square miles) of territory from Russian forces, according to news agency AFP.
Zelenskyy asserted there was no place in his country for the occupiers, a reference to Russia that is known to have made significant advances in Ukraine after declaring what it said was "special military operations" in its neighbour's territory.
"These last days, the Russian army has shown us its best (side) -- its back," Zelensky added. "After all, it's a good choice for them to flee. "There is no place in Ukraine for the occupiers. There never will be."
Ukraine's army announced a counter-offensive at the beginning of the month before making a dramatic breakthrough through Russian lines in the northeast this week, in the Kharkiv region.
Ukraine's advances in Kharkiv are another feather in the cap for the country's forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the beginning of the war.
Russia's defense ministry, which announced the troops' pullback, said forces would be regrouped from the Balakliya and Izyum areas to the eastern Donetsk region.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
