War in Ukraine: the fierce Ukrainian counteroffensive that increases the advances in the areas annexed by Russia

The Ukrainian army has recovered more territories in regions illegally annexed by Russiawith advances near the southern city of Kherson and consolidating its presence in the areas in the east retaken during the weekend.

The advances were confirmed by Vladimir Saldo, a Russian-installed leader in the Kherson region, who claimed that Russian forces were digging in.

Meanwhile, in the east, Ukrainian forces advanced further into the Russian-controlled Lugansk region.

“There are new liberated settlements in various regions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday night.

“Fierce fighting continues in many areas,” the president added, without offering details on where the fighting was taking place.

Nevertheless, He detailed that there were more and more Russian soldiers trying to escape and that the Ukrainians were “inflicting every time more and more losses to the enemy army“.

Kyiv’s progress means Russia no longer has full control of any of the four Ukrainian regions it annexed last week.

On Saturday the Ukrainian troops managed to expel the Russians from the strategic city of Lyman, in Donbas, which represented a severe blow to President Vladimir Putin, according to war analysts.

The expulsion came just one day after Putin signed “accession treaties” that formalized Russia’s annexation of four ukrainian regionswhich represented the largest forced takeover of a territory in Europe since World War II.

Lyman had become a major logistics hub for Russian troop deployment and ammunition supplies.

Experts say that its recovery would allow Ukrainian troops to retake the northern part of the Donetsk region and advance further into the neighboring Luhansk region.

Now in the south, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed leader in the Kherson region, admitted that Ukrainian forces had stormed near Dudchanya city on the banks of the Dnipro River, about 30 km south of where the line that separated both armies was previously.

“There are settlements that are occupied by Ukrainian forces,” Saldo explained. Some Russian media claim that the Ukrainians have recaptured the city of Dudchany.

Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, confirmed that the Ukrainian tanks, which are “numerically superior“, had opened a “deep breach” south of Zolota Balkaa village that marked the former front line on the Dnipro.

He claimed that the Russians had killed around 130 Ukrainian soldiers in the battle for the area.

Saldo added that two Ukrainian battalions tried to reach the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, about 70 km east of Kherson, specifically in the port city of Nova Kakhovka.

According to the agency Reuters, the Ukrainian advance is aimed at cutting the supply lines of up to 25,000 Russian troops on the west bank of the Dnipro.

The events of the last week, which include the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories by Moscow, have further removed the possibility of reaching an agreement to end the conflict.

On Tuesday, the president Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree formally declaring “impossible” the perspective of any dialogue with Vladimir Putin.

The decree formalizes comments made by Zelenskiy on Friday after the Russian president proclaimed four occupied regions of Ukraine as part of Russia.

“He (Putin) he does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia,” Zelenskiy said on Friday.

Meanwhile, at a press conference in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured on Tuesday that the “special military operation” in Ukraine would not end if Kyiv ruled out dialogue.

“Two sides are needed to negotiate,” he added.

Clause one of the decree signed by Zelenskiy, which was prepared by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council on September 30, reads “(Ukraine has decided) to declare that it is impossible to conduct negotiations with the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin”.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that more than 200,000 people have been called up for military service since Russia announced a “partial mobilization” two weeks ago, according to news agency reports RIA Novosti.

Since Putin made the announcement, lines of kilometers of cars that move little fill the roads near the borders of Russia with other countries and there are thousands who have left Russia.

Interviewed by the Russian service of the BBC, many of the people stuck in traffic speak of a “humanitarian catastrophe” at the border.

On the border line between Russia and Georgia, people, mostly young Russians, they can spend days in traffic while trying to leave their country

They spend most of the day inside their cars, where they also sleep. Many are running out of food and water.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says reservists drafted into the army under Putin’s mobilization order are now receiving a intensive combat training in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, largely controlled by Russia.

The Kremlin plans to call up about 300,000 reservistsalthough Putin has not put a limit on the number of people he could call to war.

For its part, Kyiv has promised to retake all the territory annexed by Russia, including Crimea, seized by Russian troops in 2014.

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