Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east and south of the country continues to build momentum, with President Zelenskyy announcing last night that there were “new liberated settlements in several regions.”
On Monday, Ukrainian forces saw more successes on the battlefield, pushing through Russian defenses in the south of the country, as well as consolidating their hold on territory around Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region, and looking to push further into neighboring Luhansk.
President Putin announced Russia was annexing both regions last Friday, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, but Moscow’s hold on them looks increasingly fragile with none of the regions fully occupied by Russian forces.
In his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said “fierce fighting continues in many areas of the front” but said an increasing number of occupying forces were trying to escape and “more and more losses are being inflicted on the enemy army.”
Zelenskyy said Russian men who had been mobilized to fight in Ukraine just a few weeks ago were already dying in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the U.S. committed even more firepower to Ukraine’s fight, as the Biden administration announced another $625 million in military aid to Kyiv. In a call with Zelenskyy, President Joe Biden said the U.S. would never recognize the illegal annexation attempts.