Moscow, August 30 (QNA) - The Russian army announced Saturday that it has almost entirely encircled the city of Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast, eastern Ukraine.

In a statement on the results of the spring and summer military operations, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said the Russian troops are nearly besieging Kupiansk and taking control of half the city. He stressed that the joint forces units are conducting unremitting attacks on the frontline almost entirely, which have resulted in taking over more than 3,500 sq m of territory and 149 settlements in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian troops have captured 7 areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, 99.7 percent of Luhansk Oblast, leaving less than 60 sq m remaining, 79 percent of Donetsk Oblast, 74 percent of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, 76 percent of Kherson Oblast, and 210 sq m of territory and 13 areas in Sumy Oblast, Gerasimov added.

Gerasimov pointed out that in the direction of Rubtsovsk, the group's units advanced up to 25 km and captured ten settlements, namely Mirnoye, Katerynivka, Novomykhailivka, Novoye, Lipovoye, Redkodub, Petrovskoye, Zelenaya Dolina, Kolodyzi, and Sredniy. (QNA)آ