Europe 1 with AFP 08:36, October 07, 2022, modified at 08:39, October 07, 2022

On the 226th day of the Russian invasion, Ukraine announced Thursday that it had recaptured 500 km2 of territory in the south, where its counter-offensive is putting Russian troops under pressure.

Volodymyr Zelensky called for continued military aid to kyiv so that "the Russian tanks do not advance on Warsaw or even on Prague".

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Ukraine announced on Thursday that it had recaptured 500 km2 of territory in the south, where its counter-offensive is putting Russian troops under pressure, and demanded more weapons from Europeans to "punish" Russia.

Ukrainian troops have been on the offensive on all fronts since early September and have already recaptured most of the Kharkiv region in the northeast, and important logistical nodes such as Izium, Kupyansk and Lyman (East ).

“Since October 1 alone and in the Kherson region alone, more than 500 km2 of territory and dozens of localities have been liberated,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday evening.

Information to remember:

  • Ukraine announced on Thursday that it had regained 500 km2 of territory in the South

  • Volodymyr Zelensky calls for continued military aid to kyiv

  • Self-determination "referendums" have "no legal value" in the eyes of the UN

  • Kyiv also received a visit on Thursday from the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi

Volodymyr Zelensky calls for continued military aid to kyiv

Speaking a few hours earlier before the European leaders gathered at the summit, Volodymyr Zelensky called for continued military aid to kyiv so that "the Russian tanks do not advance on Warsaw or even on Prague".

"We must punish the aggressor," he said, seven months after the start of the Russian invasion.

Sign of the annoyance of the Kremlin, the French ambassador to Moscow Pierre Lévy was summoned Thursday because of the deliveries of weapons to Ukraine by Paris. 

Russians claim to have 'repelled the enemy'

The Moscow army, for its part, assured in its daily report that it had "repelled the enemy" in the same region of Kherson where kyiv claims its new successes.

According to her, the Ukrainian forces deployed four tactical battalions on this front, ie several hundred men, and "several times tried to break through the Russian defenses" near Dudtchany, Sukhanové, Sadok and Bruskinskoye.

The results of the referendums have "no legal value" in the eyes of the UN

Faced with the setbacks of the Russian army in Ukraine and a chaotic mobilization in Russia which has pushed hundreds of thousands of his compatriots into exile, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Wednesday that the military situation would "stabilize".

While Moscow only partially controls these areas and is in difficulty there militarily, Vladimir Putin signed a law on Wednesday enshrining the annexation of four Ukrainian regions after the holding of "referendums" of self-determination without "any legal value" in the eyes of the UN, and denounced as "simulacra" by kyiv and its allies.

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Another point of friction, Moscow castigated on Thursday remarks by Volodymyr Zelensky who spoke during an interview of NATO's "preventive strikes" against Russia, prompting the Kremlin to denounce a "call to start a new world war with monstrous and unforeseeable consequences".

The Ukrainian presidency split a message explaining that Volodymyr Zelensky's remarks were misunderstood and that he was talking about sanctions and not nuclear strikes.

On the front, Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by AFP said they finally saw "the light at the end of the tunnel", thanks to their recent successes, after more than seven months of a grueling war.

"Now it's better," said 29-year-old Bogdan.

"We see their successes and it inspires us. If some people thought we weren't going fast enough, now that's not the case!"

Shelling continues in Zaporizhia

The bombardments continued, notably in Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine, one of the regions that Moscow claims to have annexed, where a strike left at least seven people dead and five missing, according to local governor Oleksandr Starukh.

In the center of the city, AFP journalists saw two bomb-ravaged sites.

On the first, everything above the ground floor collapsed, raising fears of a higher toll.

A few hundred meters away, a crater several meters deep was visible in front of an apartment building, with the roof blown off, as were most of the windows.

"The clearing of the rubble continues, after which it will be possible to establish the exact number of dead and injured," Starukh said on Telegram.

In the Donetsk region (east), another territory annexed by Moscow, at least 14 people have been killed and 3 injured in the past 24 hours in areas under kyiv control, according to the Ukrainian presidency.

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kyiv also received a visit on Thursday from the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, who is also due to go to Moscow soon.

He came in particular to discuss the establishment of "a protection zone" around the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, regularly targeted by shots for which Russians and Ukrainians are mutually responsible.

Rafael Grossi insisted that this plant, the largest in Europe, remains "obviously" Ukrainian, despite its formal appropriation by Moscow on Wednesday via a decree signed by Vladimir Putin.

“We continue to say what needs to be done, which is basically to avoid a nuclear accident at the plant, which remains a very, very clear possibility,” he argued.

Volodymyr Zelensky said that "only Ukrainian specialists can guarantee that there will be no incident at the Zaporijjia power plant".