The Ukrainian army has now recaptured eight villages and 113 square kilometres of occupied territory in the ongoing counter-offensive, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told participants on Thursday at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London.
"It's a huge territory," Shmyhal said, adding that Ukrainian troops had advanced into Russian-occupied territory at a depth of up to 7 kilometres.
"So we have good results," Shmyhal said.
Nevertheless, he urged patience. A counteroffensive is a series of military operations, some offensive, some defensive, he said.
Sometimes tactical pauses are necessary. The advance is also being slowed by minefields laid by the Russians.
"But we should all understand that we, every life for us, is very important every life so we will not bring our people into the fire of this war as the Russians doing," the Ukrainian prime minister said.
He said they were pursuing "very smart, offensive operations and because of this, it could take time.
However they are "absolutely optimistic" that they would be able to retake "all of our lands occupied by Russians."
