Brigadier General Oleksiy Khrumov said Ukraine had regained control of more than 100 square kilometers of territory in its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Reuters quoted the Ukrainian military commander as saying in a press release: “We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our lands with our own hands.”
He confirmed that in the early stages of the offensive, which Ukraine says began last week, seven residential communities have been liberated in Donetsk in the east of the country and Zaporizhia in the south.
Military officials said the army had advanced up to three kilometers near the village of Mala Tokmashka in the Zaporizhia sector, and up to seven kilometers near a village south of Velika Novoselka in the Donetsk sector.
Russia, which launched its own military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, has not officially acknowledged the Ukrainian advance. Each side says the other has suffered heavy casualties since the counterattack began.
air defense missiles
In a joint statement, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark said they would send air defense equipment, including hundreds of missiles, to Ukraine to help it. to confront the Russian forces.
The joint statement released by the UK government, ahead of the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels, said delivery of the equipment had already started and would be completed “within weeks. “.
Arms re-export
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Switzerland to allow arms re-exports to Ukraine, saying it would be necessary to end the “Russian invasion”.
Switzerland’s long-standing policy of neutrality prohibits any country that buys its weapons from re-exporting them to parties to conflicts.
Last November, it banned the sending of Swiss ammunition to Russia or Ukraine.
“I am aware of the debate in Switzerland regarding the export of war material to protect and defend Ukraine. And this will be necessary (…) We need weapons to be able to restore peace in Ukraine”, has said Zelenskyy in a video address to both houses of the Swiss parliament.
In his videotaped speech, the Ukrainian president called on Switzerland to host an international peace conference and said he spoke to his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset about the initiative in March.
Zelenskyy’s speech raised tension in the Swiss parliament as it was rejected by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, describing it as a violation of the country’s policy of neutrality.
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
