FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivers remarks after a meeting with Czech President Petr Pavel, at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Monday its troops were advancing in the east and south of the country, and signalled they were tightening the noose around Russian troops occupying the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv's troops had taken back 10.2 square km (3.9 sq miles) of territory in the south and four sq km in the east in the past week of a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Ukraine's forces had also taken control of the main commanding heights around Bakhmut and established fire control over entrances and exits to the shattered city, she said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Ukrainian military said its troops had now retaken 169 sq km on the southern front, and 24 sq km around Bakhmut since the counteroffensive began early last month.
"All of us, we want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians. We are advancing. We are not stuck," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told U.S. television network ABC ahead of a NATO summit in Lithuania on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"We would all love to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time. But there is reality. Today, the initiative is on our side."
Reuters could not verify the situation on the battlefield, and Russia has not acknowledged the Ukrainian gains. Moscow says fighting has been heavy since the counteroffensive began but still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine following its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Pro-Moscow Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said one of his units is deployed in the Bakhmut area. Russian reports in recent days had suggested that Kadyrov, whose forces have been active since the start of the war, was ill or injured or "on holiday".
(Reporting by Ron Popeski, Nick Starkov and Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
