MOSCOW: Russia has taken control of 12 settlements in Ukraine in the first two weeks of March as part of advances along the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Russian state-run news agencies quoted top general Valery Gerasimov as saying on Monday.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s armed forces had disrupted Russian plans for an offensive, with Moscow failing to reinforce its troops.
Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff, was speaking during a visit to the southern grouping of forces and pointed to gains around major Ukrainian cities in the more than four-year-old conflict, known in Russia as a special military operation.
“The offensive is being conducted in all directions,” the Russian Defense Ministry quoted him as saying on its Telegram channel.
“In two weeks in March, 12 settlements have been liberated by units and military formations of the United Group of troops.”
