Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky updated this evening (Friday) on the status of the Ukrainian counterattack against Russian forces, and said that Ukrainian forces liberated a total of 2,434 km and 96 settlements in the south of the country in their latest attack. Zelensky added that in the last week alone, the Ukrainians managed to conquer Rebuild 776 km and 29 settlements in the east of the country.
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Meanwhile, CNN reported that the Ukrainian army recaptured 2,400 square kilometers of territory in the Kherson region in the south of the country, according to a senior Ukrainian official. Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kirill Tymoshenko added that six settlements were liberated in the Kherson region as well as 61 in the Bryslav region.
According to reports, 534 civilian bodies were found in the territory reoccupied by Ukraine, including 226 women and 19 children, Kharkiv police said. At the same time, a senior Ukrainian police official revealed that more than 20 suspected Russian “torture cells” were found in the northeastern territory recently captured from Russian forces.
“In almost all the big cities and towns, where military units of the Russian army were based, they set up such places of detention of civilians and prisoners of war and tortured them,” said the head of the investigation department of the regional police.
According to him, the most common torture techniques were electric shocks and severe beatings with sticks and other objects, adding that there were also cases of pulling out nails and using gas masks to restrict breathing. He also said that criminal proceedings are also underway regarding allegations of rape.
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The successes of the Ukrainian counterattack also provoked reactions in Russia itself. Pro-Russian military analysts have blamed the string of losses on what they see as mistakes by the Russian military. Russian parliamentarians and regional officials have begun to level similar criticism of the country’s military, arguing that not enough troops have been deployed to hold the parts of eastern and southern Ukraine seized in the first weeks of the invasion.
Lt. Col. Andrei Kartopolov, head of Russia’s State Duma’s defense committee, said Thursday that officials should “stop lying” about developments on the ground. “People know. Our people are not stupid,” said Kartopolov in an interview with a Russian journalist.