Ukraine retakes up to 140 square kilometers in Vivaldi offensive, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: Getty Images)
Ukraine's Vivaldi offensive, carried out by the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, has proved highly successful, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, Reuters reports.
The president noted that the operation is still ongoing, so its results are not yet final.
Zelenskyy said that approximately 125–140 square kilometers had been liberated as of today. He stressed that the number of Russians killed and wounded had increased over the past 23 months. Since the beginning of the year, Russian losses had amounted to 30,000–32,000 people per month, including 21,000–22,000 killed, with the rest seriously wounded.
According to the president, the figure now stands at 42,000 losses per month.
In effect, this means that during the offensive operation, Ukraine's Defense Forces lost several times fewer personnel than the Russian troops that were on the defensive.
Zelenskyy also said that the operation was supposed to begin a year ago, but at the time it was not yet sufficiently prepared.
The president added that the decision had been made to postpone the operation for a while, and that it had now produced good results with fewer losses.
On October 3, the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released new footage from the third season of Operation Vivaldi.
It also became known that the Third Army Corps could disrupt Russia's plan to advance on Sloviansk.
