Kremlin vows to win back territory recaptured by Ukraine

Kyiv on Wednesday claimed further victories over Russian troops in eastern Ukraine as the Kremlin vowed to recapture territory lost in a lightening Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

 
In recent weeks, Ukraine’s forces, bolstered by Western weapons, have wrested Russian troops out of a string of towns and villages in the east and in the south.   

Kyiv this week claimed gains in the southern Kherson region and control of almost the entire eastern Kharkiv region, paving the way for its forces to enter the separatist stronghold of Lugansk.   

 “The de-occupation of the Lugansk region has already officially started,” regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a video posted on social media, adding that several settlements had been liberated.   

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into legislation his annexation of four Ukrainian territories -- including Lugansk -- as the EU agreed a new round of sanctions against Moscow in response.   

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would take back land it lost to Kyiv within the annexed regions, vowing they would be “Russian forever and will not be returned.” Putin last Friday signed agreements with the Moscow-installed leaders of the four regions to become subjects of the Russian Federation, despite condemnation from Kyiv and the West.   

Russian forces do not have full control over Kherson or Zaporizhzhia and recently lost control of several settlements in Donetsk.   

 “The way we are regrouping (our forces) along the front means that we can gather strength and strike back,” Kirill Stremousov, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of Kherson region, told the RIA Novosti news agency. 
KYIV AFP, 5 Oct, 2022