Zelensky claims Ukraine ‘de-occupied’ around 140 km of territory from Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said the Ukrainian forces have so far “de-occupied” about 125-140 square kilometres of territory under operation “Vivaldi”.“As of today, about 125-140 square kilometres have been de-occupied,” Zelensky said.Operation Vivaldi is a name given by Ukraine’s armed forces to an ongoing counteroffensive in the Lyman direction in northern Donetsk region.Speaking in an interview with Reuters, Zelensky said the operation was “not finished yet” and claimed that Russian casualties had increased over the past two to three months.He claimed Russia had suffered 42,000 casualties a month during the recent period, compared with 30,000-32,000 casualties per month since the beginning of the year.Zelensky said Ukraine’s military had wanted to begin the operation a year earlier but that it had not been sufficiently prepared at the time.“Thank God, we decided to postpone it a bit, and now we have good results and fewer losses,” he said.On US efforts…