Moscow [Russia], September 13: Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Tuesday that Ukraine has achieved any success in its three-month-old counteroffensive, even as Kiev reported new minor gains in its grinding campaign to retake territory in the south-east.
"Ukraine is conducting a so-called counteroffensive. Of course, there are no results," Putin said at an economic forum in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, on Tuesday.
That assessment flies in the face of what Kiev and other analysts of the war have reported, namely that Ukrainian forces have made gains in the Zaporizhzhya region, including retaking the village of Robotyne and piercing Russia's first defensive line.
Putin said that Russia would continue its combat operations in Ukraine as long as Kiev kept up its fighting.
Ukrainian military spokesman OleksandrShtupun said late Monday that ground forces were advancing by 50 to 200 metres per day. "Sometimes there is no movement at all because you need to get a foothold and protect the personnel," he told Ukrainian television. He said 255 square kilometres of Ukrainian land had been liberated since the start of the counteroffensive. AndriyKovalev, spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Tuesday that further progress south and south-east of Robotyne had been made. (DPA)
Source: Qatar Tribune