Ukrainian troops yesterday expanded the territory they captured, in some places reaching the country's northeastern border, and said they captured scores of Russian soldiers in a lightning offensive that forced Moscow to quickly withdraw its forces, the Associated Press reported.

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A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as they "realized the hopelessness of their situation".

An adviser to the Ukrainian president said that there are so many prisoners of war that they are running out of places to house them.

The Ukrainian military said they had liberated more than 20 settlements in 24 hours.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, in recent days, Kyiv's forces have captured an area at least twice the size of London.

After months of barely perceptible progress, the new dynamic has boosted Ukrainian morale and provoked rare public criticism of President Vladimir Putin's war in Russia, AP notes.

"In some areas of the front, our defenders have reached the state border with the Russian Federation," said Oleg Sinegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region.

Russia's defense ministry acknowledged the setback, saying over the weekend that its troops would be withdrawn from two districts in the area to regroup in eastern Donetsk region.

In his evening address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that since the beginning of September, his forces had liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers in the east and south of the country.

Russian invasion of Ukraine