C T Online Desk: Ukraine said Thursday it had recaptured swathes of fresh territory from Russian troops, as Kyiv urged Europe to help its forces expel Moscow’s army.
The proclaimed wins in the southern region of Kherson are the latest in a series of Russian defeats undermining the Kremlin’s claim to have annexed around 20 percent of Ukraine.
“Since the beginning of October, more than (500 square kilometres) have been liberated from Russian occupiers in the Kherson region alone,” President Volodymyr Zelensky announced late Thursday in his nightly address.
The recaptured territory was home to dozens of towns and villages that had been occupied by Russian forces for months, southern army command spokeswoman Natalia Gumeniuk said.
Kherson, a region with an estimated pre-war population of around one million people, was captured early and easily by Moscow’s troops after their invasion launched on February 24.
Russian-installed officials have renewed a call for residents to remain calm, with deputy pro-Moscow leader Kirill Stremousov saying Kremlin forces were holding back the advance.
But the Kremlin has pushed on — Russian missiles struck the central industrial city of Zaporizhzhia early on Thursday, killing several civilians. Rescue workers clawed through the rubble with their bare hands searching for survivors, AFP journalists saw.
Addressing a meeting in Prague of European heads of state, Zelensky called on Western capitals to supply his army with more weapons “to punish the aggressor”.
He said Thursday Ukraine must fend off Moscow’s invasion “so that Russian tanks do not advance on Warsaw or again on Prague”.
– ‘Pure hatred’ –
The EU imposed its latest round of sanctions on Russia, expanding bans on trade and individuals over Moscow’s formal annexation last Friday of four Ukrainian regions.
The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned the French ambassador to Moscow, pointing to the “threats posed” by the increased military support Paris offered to Kyiv.
On Thursday, just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the artillery battles of the southern front, seven Russian missiles struck downtown Zaporizhzhia.
“The deaths of seven residents… have been confirmed and at least five more people are considered missing,” said Oleksandr Starukh, Zaporizhzhia’s regional governor.
“Currently the dismantling of the rubble continues.”
A woman, whose body was carefully removed from the rubble by rescuers, looked as though she had been asleep in bed when the building around her was destroyed.
“For the first time in my life, I feel pure hatred,” said Igor Osolodko, a 25-year-old musician, one of the dozens of volunteer rescuers.
