Ukraine has retaken 6,000 sq km, Zelenskiy says, as he calls for air defence aid

Ukraine has retaken roughly 6,000 square km (2,400 square miles) of territory this month during its counteroffensive, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has claimed, as he urged foreign allies to swiftly supply more air defence systems.

The Ukraine president used his Monday night address to declare progress in the east and south, and that further gains were being made, as Kyiv pushed to take control of almost all of Kharkiv province.

The gains are a sliver of Ukraine’s overall land mass of about 600,000 square km, of which Russia has taken control of around a fifth, but US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had made important progress.

“Clearly we’ve seen significant progress by the Ukrainians, particularly in the north-east, and that is a product of the support we’ve provided, but first and foremost it’s a product of the extraordinary courage and resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people,” Blinken told reporters in Mexico City.

“It’s too early to tell exactly where this is going. The Russians maintain very significant forces in Ukraine as well as equipment and arms and munitions. They continue to use it indiscriminately against not just the Ukrainian armed forces but civilians and civilian infrastructure as we’ve seen,” Blinken added.

On Monday night Zelenskiy denounced Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in retaliation for the recent gains in Kharkiv, calling them “a sign of the desperation of those who invented this war. This is how they react to the defeat of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region. They can’t do anything to our heroes on the battlefield and that’s why Russia is directing its vile strikes against civilian infrastructure.”

Praising existing anti-aircraft defences that he said saw nine out of 12 of Monday’s Russian missiles shot down, Zelenskiy said in a plea to foreign nations: “above all, speed up the provision of air defence systems”.

In its first public response to Ukraine’s gains in the Kharkiv region, which began less than a week ago, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday “the military operation continues” and “it will continue until the goals that were originally set are achieved”.

Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed that the general commanding Russia’s western army group had been sacked in the wake of the Kharkiv retreat. It reported that Gen Roman Berdnikov had been replaced after less than three weeks in his post, but there was no confirmation from Russia.

Mason Clark of the US-based thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) told the BBC that what Russia had described as a “regrouping” in Kharkiv was in fact “a complete rout” of the Russian troops, who had to abandon a lot of equipment.

Russia’s reprisal missile strikes cut electricity and water supplies in Kharkiv city for a second time in less than 24 hours, knocking out both on Monday morning just hours after the city authorities had restored 80% of the utilities that had been cut overnight.

Ukraine also said Russia had engaged in 18 missile and 39 airstrikes on Sunday night. At least four civilians were killed and 11 others wounded in Russian attacks in nine regions, the presidential office in Kyiv added.