Ukrainian troops pushed all the way to the country's northeastern border in places and claimed to have captured a record number of Russian soldiers as part of the lightning advance that forced Moscow to retreat.
The spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said that Russian troops were surrendering in large numbers. The country was running out of space to accommodate POWs, according to an adviser to the president.
There were blue-and-yellow flags flying over towns that had been liberated. More than 20 settlements were freed by the Ukrainian military in a single day. According to the British Defense Ministry, the territory of Kyiv has doubled the size of London.
After months of little movement on the battlefield, the momentum has lifted the spirits of the Ukrainians.
In some areas of the front, our defenders reached the state border with the Russian Federation.
The counteroffensive left the Kremlin struggling for a response to its largest military defeat in Ukraine since Russian forces withdrew from areas near Kyiv after a failed attempt to capture the capital early in the invasion.
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the setbacks in a map that showed its troops were pushed back along the border with Russia.
As Russian troops left, there were reports of chaos.
They were here in the morning. The resident of a small town near the eastern front line said that they ran away in tanks and armored vehicles at noon.
The soldiers in the video raised the Ukrainian flag over the battle- damaged buildings. A fighter wiped his boots on a flag. Ukrainians were shown looking at the wrecks of Russian military vehicles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his address that his forces have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers in the east and south.
Ukrainian teams are disarming land mines and other unexploded weapons in the areas that have been regained from Russia.
It was not clear if the Ukrainian bombardment signaled a turning point. This is the first time in history that momentum has switched back and forth.
Oleksiy Arestovich did not say how many Russian prisoners would be swapped for Ukrainian service members. The captured troops included a large number of Russian officers.
The deputy interior minister accused the Russian forces of burning official documents and concealing bodies in order to cover up their rights violations.
Across the country, the mood was joyful.
In the capital of the region where the gains have been made, authorities hailed the fact that power and water had been restored to 80% of the population.
You're a hero. The crews who restored utilities in the second-biggest city of Ukraine were referred to by the mayor. Everyone did everything they could on the most difficult night in the history of the city to make it better.
There were signs of disarray in Russia as Russian military commentators criticized the Kremlin for not taking stronger action against Ukraine.
Russia has stopped short of calling its invasion a war, instead describing it as a special military operation and relying on a small group of volunteers instead of a mass protest.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, publicly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for what he called "mistakes" that made the Ukrainian-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873
It was seen on Russian TV.
A former parliament member said on a talk show that people convinced President Putin that the operation would be effective. It is not possible to defeat Ukraine using these resources and war methods.
Western weaponry and fighters were blamed for the losses.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper referred to one of the areas where Russia said it has withdrawn troops as the site of the attack on Izium.
According to Russia's Tass news agency, residents of a Russian village just across the border from Ukranian were evacuated after one person was killed by shelling.
The head of Logachevka's administration said that Ukrainian troops opened fire at a border checkpoint.
The town of Lyman was captured by Russia in late May and offers access to bridges over the Siversky Donets river.
Pushilin acknowledged that the situation was difficult.
The casualties kept mounting despite Ukraine'sbullience. According to the presidential office, at least four civilians were killed and 11 others were wounded in a series of Russian attacks. According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, there have been over 5000 deaths of civilians.
One civilian was killed and several fires were set in the residential areas of Kharkiv on Monday.
A council member in Izium accused the enemy of killing civilians and committing other atrocities. Hundreds of people died during the fighting and after Russia took the town, according to Maksym Strelnikov.
He said that many died from shelling and were not given a proper burial. Similar scenes have played out in other places captured by the Russians.
More evidence of human rights violations by the Russians was found by the Ukrainian military. It didn't say anything.
Izium was a major base for the Russian army. Strelnikov said that the first Ukrainian flag was raised over the city. Some people in the country's flag greeted Ukrainian forces and gave them food.
The Zaporizhzhia power plant is Europe's largest nuclear facility and is in a precarious position because of the continued shelling of the Dnieper River. As fighting raged nearby, the last operational reactor in that plant was shut down.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the location and nature of the major fighting will likely be dictated by the city of Kyiv.
According to the British Defense Ministry, the retreat would put Moscow's troops on the back foot.
That's right.
Arhirova was reporting from Ukranian.
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