Russian defence minister says Russian troops captured 547 sq km of Ukrainian territory this year

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Russian troops had captured 547 sq km of territory in Ukraine this year.

Shoigu said Ukrainian forces were retreating all along the front line.

Shoigu, in remarks on Friday to senior military commanders, said Ukrainian forces were retreating all along the frontline and that Russian troops were breaking what he called a network of Ukrainian strongholds.

“The Ukrainian army units are trying to cling on to individual lines, but under our onslaught they are forced to abandon their positions and retreat,” said Shoigu.

“Over the past two weeks, the Russian Armed Forces have liberated the settlements of Novobakhmutivka, Semenivka and Berdychi in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” he said, referring to the name Russia uses for one of the four annexed regions.

Ukraine’s top commander said on Sunday that Kyiv’s outnumbered troops had fallen back to new positions west of three villages on the eastern front.

Moscow said in September 2022, seven months after sending troops into Ukraine, that it had incorporated four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia – into its own sovereign territory despite not fully controlling any of them.