WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that whereas Ukraine has reconquered half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv confronted a “a very hard fight” to win back extra.
“It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized,” Blinken stated in an interview to CNN on Sunday.
“These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough,” he stated, including: “It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months.”
Hopes that Ukraine might shortly clear Moscow’s forces from its territory following the launch of a summer time counteroffensive are fading as Kyiv’s troops battle to breach closely entrenched Russian positions within the nation’s south and east.
Late final month President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that progress in opposition to Russian forces was “slower than desired” however that Kyiv wouldn’t be pressured into rushing it up.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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