RIGHT SPEAK: RUssia tries to Signal Normalcy as UKRaine Forces Advance; UKR Reports Advances in Early Stages of Counterattack; RU Soldiers' Corpses Line Road into Liberated UKR Village; Video Shows Desperate RU Soldier Surrender to Drone on Bakhmut Battlefield, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Russia tries to signal normalcy as Ukraine forces advance:

Russia announced plans on Thursday to stage elections in occupied parts of Ukraine in just three months, Moscow's latest bid to signal it is in control even as a Ukrainian counteroffensive has pushed its forces back in some areas.

The Ukrainian assault is in its early stages, and military experts say the decisive battles still lie ahead. But corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armoured vehicles lining the roadside in villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian troops attested to Kyiv's biggest advances since last year.

"Our heroic people, our troops on... the front line are facing very tough resistance," Zelenskiy told NBC News in an interview in Kyiv. "Because for Russia to lose this campaign to Ukraine, I would say, actually means losing the war."

Zelenskiy said the news from the front lines was "generally positive but it's very difficult," according to a partial transcript of the interview.

Continuing his campaign for military assistance, Zelenskiy urged the Swiss parliament in a video address to allow other states to re-export Swiss-made weapons to Ukraine, saying such a move by the neutral country would be vital.

Reuters reached the villages of Neskuchne and Storozheve over the past two days, providing the first independent confirmation of the Ukrainian advance several kilometres southwards along the Mokry Yali river into territory Russia had held since the early days of its invasion last year.

Several bodies of Russian soldiers lay in the streets of ruined and depopulated villages. Ukrainian troops in Storozheve told Reuters they had killed around 50 Russians and captured four there.

The Ukrainian military, which had maintained strict silence about the campaign for more than a week, came forward to tout the gains on Thursday, holding its first full media briefing since the counteroffensive began.

Troops had captured at least seven settlements and 100 square km (38 square miles) of territory in two major pushes in the south so far, Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov said. --->READ MORE HERE

REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo

Ukraine reports advances in early stages of counterattack:

Ukraine's military said on Thursday it had regained control of over 100 square km (38 square miles) of territory in a counteroffensive against Russian forces and Kyiv added Ukraine's forces had advanced on key sectors of the front line.

Although tougher battles lie ahead, and the land recaptured in just over a week is a fraction of the territory Russia holds in Ukraine, the advances are Kyiv's biggest in several months.

"We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory even with our bare hands," Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov told a media briefing. "Over 100 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory was retaken under control"

He confirmed Russian troops that invaded in February 2022 had been forced out of seven settlements in the eastern region of Donetsk and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The army has advanced by up to 3 km (1.8 miles) near the village of Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia sector and by up to 7 km near a village south of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk sector, he said.

The military said its forces had also advanced in the Donetsk region around the devastated Russian-held city of Bakhmut in the east and near the city of Vuhledar further south. But fighting, he said, was intense.

"Our units and troops are moving forwards in the face of fierce fighting, (and) aviation and artillery superiority of the enemy," Valeryi Shershen, a spokesperson for the Tavria military sector of southern Ukraine, told Ukrainian television. --->READ MORE HERE