Ukraine military makes gains in regions claimed by Russia

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Ukraine said on Tuesday it has regained more territory that Russia claimed it annexed last week as Kyiv's ongoing counter-offensive continued to yield successes on the battlefield.

Moscow-installed Kherson region leader Vladimir Saldo admitted that Ukrainian forces had broken through Russian defenses near Dudchany along the Dnipro River.

The Ukrainian movement follows up another victory on Saturday when Kyiv took control of the hub town of Lyman in the east, near the Luhansk regional border. Russian forces had used Lyman as a logistical base before Ukraine regained control.

The Russian defense ministry said that the Ukrainian army and its "superior tank units" had managed to penetrate the depths of our defense" around the villages of Zoltaya Balka and Alexsandrovka.

Ukrainian forces also made gains in the Luhansk region, pro-Russian officials concluded on Monday.

The gains brought into question just how much, or how little, control Russia had in regions President Vladimir Putin said Moscow has now annexed in Ukraine, including Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

Longtime Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday struggled to define the borders of Russia's illegal annexation, saying Moscow was still working with its local partners to outline them.

Russia has responded to the setbacks by adding more than 200,000 people to its armed forces as part of Putin's "partial mobilization" of citizens for the war, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. He said they are currently being trained.