4 hours ago
Zelensky said that there are current successes, but now is not the time to name them
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “good news”, claiming his forces had retaken some residential areas from Russian forces.
Rumors have been circulating for days about a possible breach by Ukrainian forces of Russian defenses in the eastern Kharkiv region, but there have been no statements from Ukrainian officials.
Zelensky refused to specify the places that had been restored, saying that “now is not the time to name them.”
Separately, US officials said Ukraine was making “slow but significant progress” against Russian forces.
Speaking in his nightly video address to the Ukrainians, President Zelensky said there was “good news” about the rumored successes of the Ukrainian forces.
“I think every citizen feels proud of our soldiers,” he said, referring to specific military units, praising their bravery in combat.
But he said, “Now is not the time to name the residential areas over which we have raised the Ukrainian flag again.”
Ukraine has tightened its security measures in recent weeks and is no longer publishing many details about a widely expected counterattack in the east and south.
Ukrainian soldiers carried out an attack southeast of Kharkiv, towards the eastern Donetsk region, over which Russia has maintained strong military control since the start of the war six months ago.
Some reports indicate that Ukrainian forces may be tens of kilometers from the city of Izyum, an important link in the military supply chain for Russian forces.
For his part, Colin Kahl, the US undersecretary of defense for policy, noted that the Ukrainian forces have performed better than the Russian forces in some areas.
“It’s early. I think the Ukrainians are making slow but meaningful progress. We’ll see how it goes,” he said while attending an event in the United States.
“But I definitely think things are going better on the Ukrainian side now in the south than on the Russian side,” Archyde.com quoted him as saying.
However, the situation remains precarious.
Ukraine’s General Staff, in its nightly update on Wednesday, said it had “repelled all Russian attacks” in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, but both sides continued to exchange artillery and air strikes, damaging dozens of different places.
President Zelensky also said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s national budget next year will be that of a country at war, with more than a trillion hryvnia ($27 billion) spent on defense.
But he promised to maintain basic social spending areas such as pensions.
Nevertheless, Zelensky warned that “it is necessary to reduce all non-urgent expenditures as much as possible” – “everything that does not help in defense, does not help in the economic development of the country, and in the provision of social and cultural services to our people”.
Separately, US and UN observers have raised concerns about the fate of civilians in Ukraine as the war drags on.
A senior UN human rights official expressed the organization’s concern about the displacement of people in Ukraine, especially the fate of children.
photo released, Archyde.com
Effects of destruction in residential areas of Ukraine
Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilse Brands Keris warned of “credible allegations of forcible transfers of unaccompanied children to the territories occupied by Russia, or to the Russian Federation itself”.
She said her agency was concerned that Russia had taken a “simplified procedure” to grant these children Russian citizenship, and they could potentially be adopted into Russian families.
She added that such moves violate the Geneva Convention.
Also on Wednesday, the United States said it was concerned about a similar forced movement of Ukrainian citizens, but for adults.
The US State Department accused the Kremlin of drawing up lists of Ukrainians to force them to enter areas of the country under Russian control as part of what it called “purification operations”.
“Purification is a dehumanizing word, describing the massive campaign launched by the Kremlin to imprison, forcibly deport or disappear Ukrainian citizens that Moscow sees as a potential threat,” spokesman Vidant Patel said.
“Victims of purification have no choice but to succumb or face dire consequences,” he added.
He described the system as a large-scale, advanced operation that includes technology such as facial recognition and phone tracking – and said the US had evidence linking Kremlin officials to the project.