Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday (September 12) that Ukrainian forces had retaken 6,000 square km. (2,400 square miles) of Russian-held territory since the beginning of the month.
"Since the beginning of September and up to today, our fighters have liberated more than 6,000 square km of the territory of Ukraine in the south and in the east," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video. "The advances of our forces continue."
Ukrainian chief commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Sunday (September 11) his troops had retaken more than 3,000 square km (1,160 square miles) this month.
As thousands of Russian troops pulled back following Ukraine's gains, leaving behind ammunition and equipment, Russia fired missiles at power stations on Sunday causing blackouts in the Kharkiv and adjacent Poltava and Sumy regions.
Ukraine denounced the strikes as retaliation against civilian targets for Russia's military setbacks.
"Buildings, hospitals, schools, communal infrastructure. Russian missiles hit precisely those objects that have absolutely nothing to do with the infrastructure of the armed forces of our country," Zelenskiy said on Monday.
On Monday, Russian strikes again disrupted power and water supply in Kharkiv itself, killing at least one person, its mayor said.
Throughout the day, shelling of residential areas and infrastructure sparked fires in the city, regional emergency services said on Facebook.
Zelenskiy also repeated a call for Russian citizens to be denied tourist visas in European and other countries in his video address on Monday.
"Citizens of the terrorist state can still go to Europe to rest and go shopping, they can still get European visas, and no one knows whether there are executioners or murderers among them," he said.
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