Russian forces have established control over the village of Karpivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced today, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported.
Meanwhile, the TASS news agency reported that Ukrainian drones were trying to attack production facilities in Almetyevsk in the Russian republic of Tatarstan and quoted the city's mayor, according to whom the defense systems were operating in an enhanced mode.
Reuters notes that it cannot confirm the information about the situation on the battlefield through independent sources.
Ukraine "is not losing the war" against Russia, assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, quoted by Agence France-Presse, BTA reports. In an interview he gave to the agency just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of the neighboring country, which falls on February 24, Zelensky said that the question is actually whether Ukraine is able to win.
"We cannot say that we are losing the war, to be honest, we are certainly not losing it. The question is whether we will win, yes, that is the question - a question that, however, comes at a very high price," the Ukrainian president summed up his position.
He announced that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had liberated 300 square kilometers of territory in the southern part of the country in recent days in a counteroffensive that, he said, was ongoing.
Zelensky confided that Russia and the United States were putting pressure on Ukraine to completely withdraw its troops from Donbass. It is Kiev's refusal to give up the industrial eastern region that is the main stumbling block in the negotiations.
At the same time, the Ukrainian president said that his country continues to receive intelligence from the United States "at the same level". European soldiers should be deployed closer to the front line in the event of a ceasefire to ensure its observance, he urged. Zelensky accused Russia of using the idea of holding elections in Ukraine only to remove him from power.