According to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ukraine has successfully reclaimed half of the territory initially seized by Russia during its invasion. However, he cautioned that Kyiv still confronts significant challenges in its pursuit to regain more ground, describing the path ahead as “a very hard fight.”
“It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized,” Blinken said in an interview to CNN on Sunday.
“These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough,” he said, adding: “It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months.”
The hope surrounding Ukraine’s ability to swiftly drive out Moscow’s forces from its territory after initiating a summer counteroffensive is dwindling.
Kyiv’s troops are facing formidable obstacles and have suffered heavily losses in attempting to break through the strongly fortified Russian positions in the southern and eastern regions of the country.
In a statement last month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that the progress against Russian forces was not as rapid as desired.
However, he asserted that Kyiv would not succumb to pressure to accelerate its actions and decisions in dealing with the situation.