Russia pounds Ukraine front line

Russia yesterday said it was carrying out "massive strikes" across the Ukrainian front line as Kyiv said it aimed to liberate all of its territory after driving back Russian forces in the northeast of country in a rapid offensive.

The Kremlin also accused Kyiv's army of abusing civilians in territory it had recaptured.

Moscow's retaliation came after it was forced to pull back its troops from swathes of the northeast, particularly in the Kharkiv region, following Kyiv's lightning assault to wrest back terrain.

The territorial shifts marked one of Russia's biggest setbacks since its troops were repelled from Kyiv in the earliest days of the nearly seven-month war, yet Moscow signalled it was no closer to agreeing to a negotiated peace.

"Air, rocket and artillery forces are carrying out massive strikes on units of the Ukrainian armed forces in all operational directions," the Russian defence ministry said in its daily briefing on the conflict.

"High-precision" strikes have also been launched on Ukrainian positions around Sloviansk and Konstantinovka in the eastern Donetsk region, it added.

Ukrainian forces launched their counter-offensive in early September, seemingly catching Russia's military off guard.

By Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine's forces have retaken a total of 6,000 square kilometres (2,320 square miles) from Russian control.

Zelensky said the West must speed up deliveries of weapons systems, calling on Ukraine's allies to "strengthen cooperation to defeat Russian terror".

Zelensky's advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, spelled out why Ukraine needed more weapons, saying that firstly, it needed air defence to protect its civilians and critical infrastructure.

In the northeast, dozens of areas including the cities of Izyum, Kupiansk and Balakliya, have been retaken, Ukraine said.

Ukraine has also claimed significant gains in the southern Kherson region, where the Ukrainian army also said it had recaptured 500 square kilometres.

"The aim is to liberate the Kharkiv region and beyond - all the territories occupied by the Russian Federation," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar told Reuters yesterday on the road to Balakliia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken assessed that the Ukrainians had made "significant progress", due to their resilience as well as US support, but said: "it's too early to tell exactly where this is going."

A US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, tweeted: "Ukraine has turned the tide in its favour, but the current counter-offensive will not end the war."

Since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion, Washington and its allies have provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons that Kyiv says have helped limit Moscow's gains. Russian forces control around a fifth of the country in the south and east but Ukraine is now on the offensive in both areas.

Despite the ecent advancement of Ukrainian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no discussion of a nationwide mobilisation to bolster the operation in Ukraine.