Today, 18 September, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the Ukrainian Defence Forces are currently conducting a counteroffensive operation in the Pokrovsk direction.
He said this in an address recorded during a visit to Donetsk Region.
‘We are currently conducting one of our counteroffensive operations – the guys are doing a great job – in the Donetsk direction, in the Pokrovsk area, in the Dobropillya area. The fighting is fierce, but we have managed to inflict significant losses on the Russians,’ Zelenskyy said.
He noted that today was the first report by Commander-in-Chief Syrskyy on the results. Since the start of the operation, our soldiers have already liberated 160 square kilometres, and more than 170 square kilometres have been cleared of the occupiers.
The exchange fund has been significantly replenished – there are already almost a hundred Russian prisoners, and there will be more.
Seven settlements in the area have already been liberated, and nine more have been cleared of Russian presence.
‘Any group of occupiers who try to enter here are destroyed by our guys. Russian losses since the beginning of our counteroffensive operation, only in the Pokrovsk area, only in recent weeks, already exceed two and a half thousand, of which more than 1,300 Russians have been killed,’ the president said.
He noted that Ukraine is quite rightly defending its positions and its land.
‘This is heroic defence. I am proud of our soldiers, I am proud of our people,’ Zelenskyy said.