KYIV: Ukraine said Sunday its forces were working to wrest control of towns and villages around the strategic hub of Izyum from Russian troops as part of a sweeping counter-offensive in the country’s east.

“Our forces entered Kupiansk. The liberation of settlements in the Kupiansk and Izyum districts of the Kharkiv region is ongoing,” the Ukrainian military said in a general battlefield update Sunday, 200 days into Russia’s invasion.

A Ukrainian push to dislodge Russian forces has seen at least 30 towns and villages in the eastern Kharkiv region retaken by Kyiv’s army.

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The military said in its update Sunday that Ukraine captured about 2,000 square kilometres (772 square miles) from Moscow’s forces in recent days.

Russia first said it was reinforcing the Kharkiv region but on Saturday announced it was pulling back troops to the Donetsk region further south.