Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu has said that since the beginning of the year about 327 square kilometres of territory of the new regions of the Russian Federation have been liberated from Ukrainian troops in all directions.
According to Sergei Shoigu, after taking control of the important Avdeevka defence node of the enemy, groups of Russian troops continue to improve their position in the Donetsk and Kupyansk directions, seizing new lines and positions of the Ukrainian armed forces.
“Over the past week, the AFU were knocked out of the settlements of Pobeda, Lastochkino, and Severnoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic. In other directions, Russian troops are continuously carrying out a powerful fire impact on the facilities of Ukrainian troops, not allowing them to restore their combat capability,” Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting of the Board of the Russian Defence Ministry.
The defence minister noted the futility of the US strategy to contain Russia at the expense of Ukrainian lives and large-scale military and economic support for the Kiev regime.
Earlier, Sergey Shoigu mentioned that the Ukrainian army had lost more than 444,000 servicemen during Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.