Russia Says Ukraine’s Territorial Gains Are “An Illusion,” Officials Claim

Ukraine has pushed back sharply against Russia’s assertion that it has seized vast swathes of land and dozens of towns in just over a month, calling the claims a propaganda effort aimed at Moscow’s domestic audience.

On Tuesday, Russia’s chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, told President Vladimir Putin that Russian forces had taken 92 Ukrainian settlements and captured more than 1,800sq/km of territory since 1 September, including the eastern town of Dobropillia.

Ukraine’s General Staff spokesman Andriy Kovaliov rejected that account outright.

“In fact, through their active operations, the Ukrainian Defence Forces have liberated more territory ‌since the beginning of autumn ⁠than the enemy has managed to capture,” he said in an emailed statement.

Ukrainian rescuers work outside residential buildings damaged following a Russian missile attack in Zaporizhzhia

“The Russian military leadership continues to create an illusion of major victories for its political leadership and domestic audience,” he said.

While Russia has continued to press along the front, its advances have slowed this year. Even so, Russian forces have been focusing on the so-called “fortress belt” — the heavily defended cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk — whose capture would move Moscow closer to its stated objective of taking the entire industrialised Donetsk region.

Mr Kovaliov also disputed Mr Gerasimov’s statements that Russian troops had ⁠reached ‌the outskirts of Kramatorsk and were pushing through suburbs of Sloviansk.

Dobropillia, a town southwest of those two cities, remains under Ukrainian control despite sustained Russian attacks, he said.

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Reuters could not ⁠independently verify the battlefield claims.

As large stretches of the front have become a deadly, largely static “kill zone,” both militaries have increasingly leaned on air power to try to shift momentum.

Russia fired hundreds of ballistic missiles over the summer and early autumn and is widely expected to keep targeting critical infrastructure — including heating and power sites — as winter approaches.

Ukraine, with a much smaller missile stockpile, has instead carried out hundreds of long-range drone attacks against ‌Russian refineries, ships and warehouses.

Russia says it hit Ukrainian steel plants, power infrastructure and ships

Russia said it launched ⁠a large-scale overnight assault on Ukrainian infrastructure, naming targets that included what it described as the country’s largest steelworks in Kryvyi Rih and vessels operating via Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa.

The Kryvyi Rih plant is owned by steelmaker Arcelor Mittal, which halted operations there in September after repeated Russian ‌ballistic missile strikes. ⁠The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Russia’s defence ministry said the facility supplied steel products to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.

The ministry also reported strikes on ‌an electricity substation in the northwestern city of Zhytomyr and on another steel plant ⁠in Zaporizhzhia, the frontline-adjacent city that has regularly come under attack.

It said a cargo ship in the Black Sea was ⁠also hit, ‌alleging it was delivering military cargo to Odesa.

Later, the ministry said additional ⁠afternoon strikes hit a vehicle-repair plant in ⁠Lutsk, an electricity substation in the western Ternopil region and another cargo vessel south of Odesa that it claimed carried military and dual-use cargo.

Reuters could not independently confirm the ministry’s reports.

Russia may escalate air attacks on western Ukraine, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia could intensify its air campaign against western Ukraine, saying Moscow may seek to deploy ballistic missile systems in Belarus and urging Kyiv’s partners to provide more air-defence support.

Mr Zelensky told reporters in a WhatsApp media chat that Russia would like ‌to station ballistic missile systems in Belarus, a move he said would heighten the ‌threat to Ukraine’s western regions.

Far from the front line, western Ukraine has functioned as a relative ⁠haven during more than four ⁠years of war, drawing people and businesses that have relocated there in search of greater safety.