Ukrainian forces hold back one of Russia's most powerful offensives since full-scale invasion began of Moscow in its smaller neighbor, the top commander of the forces of Kiev, Oleksandr Sirsky, was quoted by "Reuters" as saying on Saturday.
Russian troops advanced in September at their fastest pace since March 2022, a month after President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, according to open-source data. In August, Ukraine took part of Russia's Kursk region, news.bg.
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"Ukraine's armed forces are holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives from launching a full-scale invasion," Gen. Oleksandr Sirsky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
After failing to capture the capital Kiev early in the war and win a decisive victory, Putin adjusted his military ambitions and set his sights on the industrial heartland of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, which encompasses the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
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Since then, Donbass has become the main theater of war, where some of Europe's biggest battles have been fought for generations and where thousands of soldiers from every country have died.
On Saturday, Moscow announced that it had captured two more villages along the front line in Donbass. In the week of October 20-27 alone, Russia captured nearly 200 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, according to the Russian media group "Agency", which analyzes open-source Ukrainian maps.
The war is entering what Russian analysts say is its most dangerous phase as Moscow's forces advance, North Korea sends troops into Russia and the West considers how to end the conflict.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is touring the world lobbying NATO countries to allow Kiev to use long-range missiles they have provided to strike targets deep inside Russia.
Ukraine is bracing for what could be the worst winter of the war after Russian long-range airstrikes destroyed what officials say is about half of its power generation capacity.