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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday indirectly vowed to stabilize the situation in Ukrainian territories that Russia annexed. His comments come after Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in which the latter retook villages in Luhansk and Kherson.
Speaking in a video message addressed to educators on Teachers’ Day, Putin said he believes Russia could “calmly develop” the annexed Ukrainian territories despite his country’s army suffering significant losses in two of the four regions over the past week.
“We proceed from the fact that the situation will be stabilized, we will be able to calmly develop these territories,” Putin was quoted as saying by Reuters.
His spokesman Dmitry Peskov later vowed that the Russian military would regain control of any territory that had been lost to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Control will be regained, nonetheless, over certain territories there, and we will continue to consult with that part of the population expressing the desire to live with Russia,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters, according to The Washington Post.
Over the past month, Ukraine made major breakthroughs in both Luhansk in the northeast and Kherson in the south.
On Wednesday, Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, announced that the Ukrainian army has begun the “de-occupation” of the area, adding that they successfully liberated several settlements in the region. Gaidai did not specify which settlements were recaptured by the Ukrainians.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Operational Command Privden (South) announced that the country’s army liberated the settlements of Biliaivka, Davydiv Brid, Khreshchenivka, Liubymivka, Mala Oleksandrivka, Ukrainka, Velyka Oleksandrivka and Zolota Balka in the Kherson region. That is in addition to 50 other towns that were recaptured in the region, the locations of which were not revealed.
Ukraine’s military command has been very cautious about disclosing its gain in Kherson. However, the Russian Defense Ministry presented maps of the controlled areas during its Monday and Tuesday briefings showing that the Ukrainian forces covered more than 30 kilometers in a single day.
The map also showed that the Russian forces were no longer in control of Dudchany, a village located on the west bank of the Dnipro river, or several positions on the west bank of the Oskil River. The Russian army retreated toward the border of Luhansk Oblast, as per Aljazeera.
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