Ukraine recaptures more ground as Russia strikes back
Ukraine said that its forces regained yet more ground in the past 24 hours and retook an area seven times the size of Kyiv this month, as Russia responded with strikes on some recaptured areas.
The territorial shifts marked one of Russia's biggest reversals since its troops were turned back from Kyiv in the earliest days of the nearly seven months of fighting, yet Moscow signalled it was no closer to agreeing to a negotiated peace.
The retreat of Russian troops in recent days has drawn weeping and relieved locals into bomb-cratered streets, including in the strategic but heavily damaged town of Izyum.
Yet Moscow had announced air, rocket and artillery attacks on reclaimed areas in the Kharkiv region, a day after Kyiv said Russian strikes on electricity infrastructure caused power failures.
The retaliatory fire came as Ukraine said forces had retaken more than 20 additional settlements, claiming "Russian troops are hastily abandoning their positions and fleeing".
Kyiv had already announced the recapture of Izyum in the country's east, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine's forces retook a total of 6,000 square kilometres from Russian control in September.
"Ukraine has turned the tide in its favour, but the current counter-offensive will not end the war," US think tank Institute for the Study of War tweeted.
The Russian strikes hit 15 locations, from Kramatorsk in the east to Mykolaiv in the south and Dnipro in between, Ukraine's military said.
