Russia says it will continue to kill Ukrainians

The war against Ukraine will be continued, Russian General Staff chief Valeriy Gerasimov has said, Russian propaganda media have quoted the Russian Defence Ministry as saying.

The fulfilment of the tasks of the "SWO" grouping of troops will be continued by conducting offensive actions. Today we will specify the tasks to the groups of troops in the directions for the autumn period," the Defence Ministry quoted him as saying.

At the same time Gerasimov said that at the moment "Russian troops have the initiative."

During the spring-summer period, the enemy concentrated all efforts on slowing down our offensive," Gerasimov said.

Gerasimov informed that the Russian Federation plans to continue to deliver massive strikes "exclusively against military facilities" of Ukraine.

According to the plan of the General Staff, targeted delivery of massive fire strikes exclusively against military facilities and facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine continues, - Gerasimov said.

He added that a series of attacks on Ukraine are carried out by the Russian army together with the FSB.

Also, according to Grasimov, Russian troops have now occupied 79 per cent of the territory of the Donetsk region and 99.7 per cent of the territory of the Luhansk region.

Ukrainian forces there have less than 60 square kilometres left to recapture. The Russian army also controls 74 per cent of Zaporizhzhya and 76 per cent of Kherson regions," he said.

Gerasimov added that since March, the invaders have occupied 149 settlements and more than 3,500 square kilometres of territory.

Seven settlements have been taken under control in Dnipropetrovsk region and 13 in Sumy region," Gerasimov said.

Meanwhile, the AFU General Staff reports that the Pokrovskoye direction has recently remained the hottest section of the front. The day before, the Ukrainian defenders carried out successful counterattacks in Donetsk Region and liberated three settlements from the occupants.