Ukraine said on Tuesday it plans to liberate all of its territory after repelling Russian forces in the country’s northeast with a swift offensive, but urged the West to speed up the delivery of weapons systems to support progress.
Since Moscow abandoned its main stronghold in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, suffering its biggest defeat since the early days of the war, Ukrainian troops have recaptured dozens of cities in a dramatic shift in battlefield momentum.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar told Reuters on Tuesday that fighting still continues in the Kharkov region and said that Ukrainian forces are making good progress because they are highly motivated and their operations are well planned.
“The aim is to liberate the Kharkov region and beyond – all the territory occupied by the Russian Federation,” he said on the way to Balakliia, a key military supply hub recaptured by Ukrainian forces last week, 74km southeast. .From Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
In a video speech on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the West should accelerate weapons system deliveries and urged Ukraine’s allies to “strengthen cooperation to defeat Russian terrorism”.
Since the February 24 invasion of Russia, Washington and its allies have supplied Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons, saying Kiev has helped limit Moscow’s gains. Russian forces control about a fifth of the country in the south and east, but Ukraine is currently on the offensive in both areas.
The Ukrainian military reported on Tuesday that there was no further progress, saying Russian forces had bombed parts of the Kharkov region retaken by Ukraine and attacked further south in the Donetsk region, which Moscow was trying to seize for the separatists.
source: Noticias
