During the 68th week of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine claims to have recaptured approximately 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of its territory as a long-planned counterattack gains momentum.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that Ukraine is suffering “catastrophic” losses and that Kyiv’s casualties are ten times greater than Moscow’s.
“All counteroffensive attempts made so far have failed, but the offensive potential of the troops of the Kyiv regime is still preserved,” said Putin.
The counteroffensive is still in its early days, according to Demetries Andrew Grimes, a former commander who spent two years retraining the Ukrainian military from 2015 to 2017.
“All we’re seeing right now is softening of the [Russian] front lines with harassment fire with everything from small arms and rockets to drones and artillery,” Grimes told Al Jazeera.
“The aim of that is to stretch out the opposition to thin their forces… they’re lengthening the conflict zone and forcing the Russians to expose their supply lines so those can be disrupted and [Ukrainian forces] can encircle smaller groups.”
Article from www.aljazeera.com