Zelensky claims Ukrainian forces have de-occupied 125-140 sq km in Operation Vivaldi

“As of today, about 125-140 square kilometres have been de-occupied,” Zelensky said (Photo: X/@ZelenskyyUa).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said the Ukrainian forces have so far “de-occupied” about 125-140 square kilometres of territory under operation “Vivaldi”. “As of today, about 125-140 square kilometres have been de-occupied,” Zelensky said. Operation Vivaldi is a name given by Ukraine’s armed forces to an ongoing counteroffensive in the Lyman direction in northern Donetsk region. Speaking in an interview with Reuters, Zelensky said the operation was “not finished yet” and claimed that Russian casualties had increased over the past two to three months. He claimed Russia had suffered 42,000 casualties a month during the recent period, compared with 30,000-32,000 casualties per month since the beginning of the year. Zelensky said Ukraine’s military had wanted to begin the operation a year earlier but that it had not been sufficiently prepared at the time. “Thank God, we decided to postpone it a bit, and now we have good results and fewer losses,” he said. On US efforts to end the war, Zelensky said he believed President Donald Trump wanted to stop Russia’s war against Ukraine. “I think the US really wants to stop Russia’s war. I trust them,” he said, while adding that it was difficult to stop a big country that “doesn't want to stop”. Zelensky said the US was seeking compromises with Russia but argued that time was being lost in pursuing them. He said Trump wanted to achieve “some kind of victory” before the US midterm elections, while claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin would seek to make the situation “non-negotiable”.

Russia-Ukraine exchange long-range strikes

On Saturday morning, a Russian Shahed drone struck Kyiv’s Pivnichnyi Bridge, amid Moscow’s attempts to dismantle Kyiv’s infrastructure all around. “Overnight, residential buildings, railways, and energy infrastructure in many regions came under Russian attack. In Chornomorsk, a drone struck a vessel,” Zelensky wrote on X. According to Zelensky, Ukraine’s long-range capabilities had struck targets in the Samara region and positions of Russian forces operating Iskander missile systems in the Bryansk region. He also said there were “new results in the Black Sea”. Meanwhile, in a notice issued on Saturday, the Russian foreign ministry said its forces were continuing to carry out “systematic and sustained strikes” against military targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. The ministry said the strikes were in response to what it described as “terrorist attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against Russia’s civilian population and infrastructure”. It also reiterated a previous call for foreign nationals and diplomatic personnel in Kyiv to leave the city and refrain from travelling to Ukraine. Russian authorities, it said, had also urged Ukrainian residents to stay away from military and administrative facilities.

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