Putin claims Kyiv holds only 10% of Donetsk region in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to a Russian army command post, said that Kyiv retains control of just over 10% of the territory of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” and 16.5% of Zaporizhzhia region, while the “Luhansk People’s Republic” is fully under Russian control. The Russian leader made the remarks in the fifth year of the war against Ukraine, according to the Interfax agency.

Putin also said the army has been tasked with creating a “security zone” on neighbouring territory, in response to the earlier incursion of Ukrainian troops into Russia’s Kursk region. According to him, the task is “being carried out successfully”, and Moscow does not plan to bring the issue to peace talks with Ukraine.

He called the capture of the town of Dobropillia in Donetsk region a success: Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported its seizure to the president.

What the Ukrainian side says

Two days earlier, Andriy Biletsky, commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps, said that during Operation Vivaldi Ukrainian units had liberated another 101 square kilometres of territory, including the villages of Zelena Dolyna, Lypove and Kolodiazi in Donetsk region.

In September, the Ukrainian army regained 172 square kilometres in a counteroffensive in northern Donetsk region called Vivaldi, which aims to push the front line back from the key fortified cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, AFP reported, citing analysis of data from the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW). In other areas, Ukraine regained a total of 32 square kilometres in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk regions.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz