Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks through a push conference at the Commonwealth of Unbiased States’ Head of States Assembly at the Ala-Archa Condition Home on October 13, 2023 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
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President Vladimir Putin stated Russian forces have bolstered their positions throughout the overall entrance line in Ukraine right after what he claimed was the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive this 12 months.
Putin’s selection in 2022 to mail tens of hundreds of troops into Ukraine began a war that has left swathes of Ukraine devastated and hundreds of hundreds of men and women useless or hurt.
Russia at this time controls about 17.5% of Ukrainian territory and a 4-thirty day period-previous Ukrainian counteroffensive this yr by Ukrainian forces has designed practically no web territorial gains, according to Western analyses of the territory held by Russia.
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Although Ukraine took back territory taken by Russia previous 12 months, the Ukrainian military has struggled to penetrate Russian strains which have been bolstered with minefields and thousands of additional Russian troops.
“As for the counteroffensive, which is allegedly stalling, it has unsuccessful completely,” Putin said in video clip remarks posted to social media by Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin.
“The opposing aspect is planning new energetic offensive functions. We see it and we know it,” Putin stated when asked about the fight for the japanese Ukrainian city of Avdiivka.
The two Russia and the United States have explained the upsurge of combating all-around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.
“What is occurring now along the overall size of the [line of] speak to is known as ‘an lively defense’,” Putin reported. “And our troops are improving their place at almost the total spot. Really a significant space.”
In accordance to the Belfer Heart at Harvard, Ukraine designed a net obtain of 8 square miles of territory in the thirty day period to Oct. 10.
The conflict in jap Ukraine started in 2014 immediately after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces.