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WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has reconquered half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced a "a very hard fight" to win back more.

"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."

Hopes that Ukraine could quickly clear Moscow's forces from its territory following the launch of a summer counteroffensive are fading as Kyiv's troops struggle to breach heavily entrenched Russian positions in the country's south and east.

Late last month President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that progress against Russian forces was "slower than desired" but that Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.

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[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This uhh. This is just nonsense right? I'm not aware of Ukraine having broken any of the defensive first lines let alone past any of the dragon's teeth lines. There's 2 more lines beyond those. Getting past these lines is necessary before getting even 10%, let alone 50%.

Or are they talking about something that happened much earlier? That's really confusing too because anyone that's been watching the map trackers knows nothing close to 50% ever happened. Certainly some pushback several months ago but hardly 50% ????

[-] chowder@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago
[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Aight so like 15-20% and he's referring to something that happened ages ago then. I thought it was kinda weird, I guess they're not happy about how the current counteroffensive is going either and this kind of statement helps generate headlines that stop people's support dropping whether it's actually true or not.

I needed to ask because I wasn't really sure if I'd just missed something incredibly major somehow.

[-] Carighan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I mean looking at this video - which is 4 months old now, too - I am eyeballing it but kinda seems like yeah, it could be 40%+? So now it's 50% maybe, sure.

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[-] Worstdriver@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

This is since the invasion began, counting from Russia's deepest gains into Ukrainian territory. So, this is everything that Ukraine has managed to do against the world's second largest military. While currently there haven't been any spectacular gains, the Ukraine has been steadily grinding the land back from the invaders and combined the amount now adds up to 50% retaken.

Meaning the job is half done, but also half finished.

[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

This boundless optimism is so strange. Using something that was so long ago now for propaganda in the present is super misleading. Until we see a breakthrough of the defensive lines, literally just 1 layer of a line would be a good start let alone all 3 layers I can't really agree with anyone that thinks much is going to happen from the ukrainian side. If/when that does happen I'd be happy to reassess.

[-] rjs001@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Ukraine gaining anything shouldn’t inspire any optimism at all

[-] rambaroo@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago

Lol "so long ago". Most of it wasn't even a year ago dude, and the article is pretty clear about the timeline being discussed.

[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Most of it wasn’t even a year ago

Yes it was? The withdrawal from the north was march30-april6.

I'm not a dude.

[-] raresbears@iusearchlinux.fyi 3 points 1 year ago

The job is not at all half finished. There is a massive difference between taking back territory Russia strategically chose to withdraw from following their failure to advance further and taking back territory they have claimed as an integral part of their nation and will fight tooth and nail to defend.

this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
716 points (97.5% liked)

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