KRAMATORSK , Ukraine, Sept 13, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Ukraine said Monday that
its forces regained yet more ground in the past 24 hours and retook an area
seven times the size of Kyiv this month, as Russia responded with strikes on
some recaptured areas.

The territorial shifts marked one of Russia's biggest reversals since its
troops were turned back from Kyiv in the earliest days of the nearly seven
months of fighting, yet Moscow signalled it was no closer to agreeing to a
negotiated peace.

The retreat of Russian troops in recent days has drawn weeping and relieved
locals into bomb-cratered streets, including on Sunday in the strategic but
heavily damaged town of Izyum.

"It's not enough to say I'm happy. I just don't have enough words to express
myself," said Yuriy Kurochka, 64.

Yet by Monday, Moscow had announced air, rocket and artillery attacks on
reclaimed areas in the Kharkiv region, a day after Kyiv said Russian strikes
on electricity infrastructure had caused power failures.

The retaliatory fire came as Ukraine said forces had retaken more than 20
additional settlements, claiming "Russian troops are hastily abandoning their
positions and fleeing".

Kyiv had already announced the recapture of Izyum in the country's east,
while President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine's forces retook a
total of 6,000 square kilometres (2,320 square miles) from Russian control in
September.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said Ukrainian forces had made
"significant progress", due to their resilience as well as US support.

"It's too early to tell exactly where this is going. The Russians maintain
very significant forces in Ukraine as well as equipment and arms and
munitions. They continue to use it indiscriminately against not just the
Ukrainian armed forces but civilians and civilian infrastructure as we've
seen," Blinken said.

A US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, tweeted: "Ukraine has
turned the tide in its favour, but the current counter-offensive will not end
the war."

Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told French daily Le Monde in a Monday
interview that the war has entered a new phase with the help of Western
weapons.

Moscow conceded having lost territory -- which experts saw as a serious blow
to its war ambitions -- but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no
prospect of negotiations.

"The special military operation continues and will continue until the
objectives that were originally set are achieved," he added, using Russia's
terminology for the internationally condemned war.

- 'Weapons, weapons, weapons' -

The Russian strikes hit 15 locations on Sunday, from Kramatorsk in the east
to Mykolaiv in the south and Dnipro in between, Ukraine's military said.

Ukraine had already lost all power from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia
nuclear plant, threatened by shelling since February's invasion.

The country's nuclear energy agency said the final reactor at the plant --
Europe's largest nuclear power station -- had been shut off as a safety
measure.

Kyiv and Moscow have shown "signs that they are interested" in creating a
security zone around the plant, the UN atomic watchdog said Monday.

"What we need here really is Ukraine and Russia to agree on a very simple
principle of not attacking or not shelling the plant," IAEA director general
Rafael Grossi told reporters.

But later Monday, Ukraine foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the
only way to "ensure the nuclear safety and security of the Zaporizhzhia power
plant is its de-occupation, demilitarisation and return to Ukrainian
control".

"All IAEA efforts must be focused on achieving this goal," he wrote on
Twitter.

The speed of Ukraine's fightback has seemingly caught Russia's military off
guard, bringing swathes of territory Moscow had controlled for months back
into Kyiv's fold.

Images posted by the Ukrainian military showed crates of munitions and
military hardware scattered across territory abandoned by Russian forces.

Around the town of Balakliya, AFP journalists saw evidence of fierce battles,
with buildings destroyed or damaged and streets mostly deserted.

Ukrainian authorities also claimed to have found four bodies of civilians
with "signs of torture" in the recaptured village of Zaliznychne.

Residents reported that Russian troops had killed villagers, the regional
prosecutor's office said.

Ukraine's foreign minister used the momentum of the country's fightback to
appeal to Western allies for more stockpiles of sophisticated weapons.

"Weapons, weapons, weapons have been on our agenda since spring. I am
grateful to partners who have answered our call: Ukraine's battlefield
successes are our shared ones," Dmytro Kuleba said.