Ukrainian forces have regained 745 sq km of territory occupied by Russia since the beginning of the year in an operation on the southeastern front, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday, quoted by "Reuters".
According to him, 26 settlements in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions have been returned to Kiev's control. They are located along an approximately 60-kilometer stretch of the front around the area where the borders of the three regions meet.
"This offensive operation of ours was carried out precisely - exactly as planned", Zelensky wrote on the social network X. He highlighted the participation of Ukrainian airborne assault forces and other military units.
The Ukrainian army has in recent months intensified counterattacks in separate parts of the nearly 1,200-kilometer front line, while simultaneously striking Russian military logistics and energy infrastructure.
Kiev's claims about the size of the territory recovered cannot be independently confirmed. According to the combat map of the Ukrainian front monitoring platform DeepState, a significant part of the specified area remains in the so-called a gray area that is not fully controlled by either side, with parts still designated as being under Russian control.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces released video footage on Wednesday, mostly shot with drones, of Ukrainian servicemen raising the national flag in towns that Kiev says have been liberated. Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity or location of the footage.
Analysts say the pace of the Russian advance along much of the front has slowed this year. However, Russian forces continue to advance towards some key cities in eastern Donetsk region.
Moscow is demanding that Ukraine relinquish the part of Donetsk region that remains under Kiev's control - a condition that the Ukrainian leadership rejects.
The death of 375 Ukrainian citizens in Russian captivity has been confirmed at this stage, and that is the number of bodies returned to Ukraine, said Dmytro Lubynets, the Ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, at a press conference today, quoted by Ukrinform, BTA reports.
"We have a separate list, which currently contains 375 names. These are Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages who have been confirmed to have been detained by Russia. Their identities were also confirmed through the international mechanism of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Their remains were handed over to Ukraine, which means that the Russian Federation has returned the bodies of Ukrainian citizens who were tortured to death," Lubinets said.
The Ombudsman stressed that Russia has created a system in which torture, humiliation and illegal sentences have become instruments of war.
"We call this system the "Moscow Conventions". This is not a legal term, but a description of the practices by which Russia treats Ukrainians. Under these "conventions" instead of protection there is torture, instead of medical care – suffering, instead of justice – sham trials, instead of repatriation – years of captivity or death", Dmytro Lubinets pointed out.
The Ombudsman added that Ukrainian prisoners of war are subjected to absolutely all forms of torture described in the Istanbul Protocol. According to him, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine have already documented 695 forms of torture against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages and have registered 860 cases of unsuitable conditions of detention. The methods of torture were expressed in beatings, the use of electric shock, sexual violence, psychological abuse, attacks with dogs and simulated executions.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kiev has launched preliminary investigations into 635 criminal cases for the mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war, Ukrinform notes.