Zelensky: Since the start of autumn we have liberated more territory than the Russians captured – “We are killing them 20 km from Zaporizhzhia, not 5”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Sunday, October 18 that Ukrainian forces have liberated more territory since the start of autumn than Russian forces have managed to capture. “This year’s trend continues,” he wrote after a briefing from commander-in-chief Mykhailo Drapatyi, adding that “the same was true at other points of the year”. Zelensky did not give a total area in square kilometres.

According to the Ukrainian president, at Dobropillia in the Donetsk region the Ukrainians are repelling assault attempts and neutralising infiltrations, while in the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions they are holding their positions. “Dobropillia, Kostiantynivka, Oleksiivo-Druzhkivka, Orikhiv, Novopavlivka, Novoandriivka and Velykomykhailivka are all under Ukrainian control,” he wrote, saying Ukrainians are also defending the areas around Kramatorsk. “We are destroying Russians 20 kilometres from Zaporizhzhia, not 5, as someone in Russia tells Putin,” he added.

Zelensky attributed the results to the operations of the Air Assault Forces and the Third Army Corps. The Third Army Corps had announced on October 14 that it recovered 101 square kilometres in the Lyman sector, and its commander, Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, said 16 settlements and 277 square kilometres were returned to Ukraine across the whole operation. The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on October 17 that Russian claims of advances on the front are “largely exaggerated”.

Russian strikes on the energy grid

The same day Zelensky said that over the past week Russia launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 guided bombs and 66 missiles, most of them ballistic, with the main aim of causing blackouts. On Saturday night alone substations were hit in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions, with two people killed and 12 injured, including two children.

He noted that since the American president announced an “energy ceasefire” a week earlier, Russia has struck energy infrastructure 76 times.

Talks on air defence

Later Zelensky spoke with President Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about the results of the meeting between the teams in Florida and about air defence. On Saturday he had said the US had resumed giving intelligence on Russian ballistic missiles, as we reported, and he has warned that Russia wants ballistic missiles in Belarus for strikes on western Ukraine.