Ukraine retakes 745 square kilometers in 'precision' operation this year — Zelenskiy

KYIV- Ukrainian forces have recaptured 745 square km (288 square miles) of Russian-occupied land this year across a swathe of the southeastern front, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, adding the operation went "exactly as planned."

Ukraine's military has sought to heap pressure on Moscow's war effort in recent months, counterattacking on parts of the 1,200-km (725-mile) front and striking logistics and energy infrastructure.

Zelenskiy said 26 settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions had been brought back under Kyiv's control. They are located along an approximately 60-km (37-mile) stretch of the front where the borders of the three regions meet.

"This offensive operation of ours was carried out with precision – exactly as planned," he said on X, crediting Kyiv's air-assault forces and other units.

The Ukrainian open-source group DeepState, which tracks the positions of both sides in the more than 4-1/2-year-old war, said in its latest assessment that Ukrainian forces had restored control over 19 settlements along the front line.

DeepState said Kyiv's forces had pushed back Russian troops in six more settlements.

The lists of settlements provided by Zelenskiy and DeepState were broadly similar.

A video posted by Ukraine's General Staff on Wednesday featured mostly drone-shot footage of its troops holding up the Ukrainian flag in the recaptured settlements. Reuters could not independently verify it.

Russia's battlefield advances have slowed this year across much of the front, analysts say, though its forces are still closing in on key cities in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Moscow has demanded Kyiv give up the rest of the industrialised Donetsk region, a demand Ukraine rejects.

-Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Alison Williams, Ron Popeski and Sanjeev Miglani/Reuters