ISTANBUL

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Sunday that Kyiv’s forces have regained control of 12 settlements since the end of January.

Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces retook 480 square kilometers (185 square miles) of territory, including eight settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region and four in the Zaporizhzhia region.

He accused Russia of continuing attacks in the Oleksandrivka direction, including in the areas of Ternove, Oleksandrivka, Ivanivka, Zeleny Hai, Andriivka-Klevtsove, Sichneve, as well as toward Sosnivka, Verbovye and Zlagoda.

Syrskyi said Russia carried out 64 attacks in that direction over the past week, alleging that Moscow aims to seize more Ukrainian territory and establish a “buffer zone” in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

“Russian troops do not refuse to continue offensive operations, regrouping available forces and equipment,” he wrote on US social media platform Facebook.

He added that Ukraine’s defense forces are conducting active defense operations, inflicting significant damage on Russian troops and destroying personnel, weapons and military equipment.

Russia has not yet commented on the claims.