The Ukrainians say they have retaken 500 square kilometers in Kherson

Her army Ukrainian announced today, Monday (12/9) that it recovered 500 square kilometers of land from Russian forces within two weeks of counterattack in the Kherson area (south), a first numerical estimate of Ukrainian gains.

“Our successes in these two weeks are quite convincingNatalia Gumeniuk, military representative for the south, pointed out while speaking to journalists. “We liberated about 500 sq. km. mainly the communities of Visokopilia, Bilogirka, Soukhi, Stavok and Miroliubifka,” he explained, as reported by the Athens News Agency, while war in Ukraine to be continued.

On her part, Russia indicated today that it bombed zones in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine (east) that were recaptured in recent days by Kiev forces during a surprise counter-attack.

“In the zones of the communities of Kupyansk and Izium, fighters and equipment of the nationalist formation “Kraken” of the 113th mechanized brigade of territorial defense and the 93rd mechanized brigade were hit,” said the representative of the Ministry of Defense in a related announcement.

Meanwhile, in an interview published today in Monde, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov stated that the war in Ukraine has entered the “third stage” and Ukrainian military successes will have an “avalanche” effect until the defeat of the Russian army.

“The counteroffensive campaign is the third stage,” Reznikov said as Kiev’s forces rapidly advanced into the country’s eastern and southern regions and said they had recaptured 3,000 square meters of territory since early September.

“The first stage in the war was to deter the Russians. The second, to establish a balance between them and us at the front, to stabilize the front, and test their endurance abilities,” said the minister.

“Our staff came up with a plan depending on the equipment we have received from our partners – we started using the Himars mobile artillery systems to cut off the enemy’s logistical support lines, destroy their fuel, ammunition depots, etc. It is the third stage of the war that started in the south and in the north in the sectors of Kherson and Kharkiv,” he stressed.

Ukraine’s goal is to liberate all occupied territories “including Crimea (annexed in 2014), Luhansk and Donetsk (in eastern Donbas)”. “Our border guards will set up their posts on the Russian-Ukrainian border, where they were in 1991,” he said.

In addition to the “full liberation” of Ukrainian territories, Kyiv claims a completely clean road map for the Russians to pay reparations and establish their responsibility for war crimes” committed since the invasion began on February 24.

Asked about the possibility of a long war, Reznikov declined to make predictions, but noted: “it will be like an avalanche, it will start to roll, roll, and get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger… And we’ll see the second largest army in the world to signal a retreat.”