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The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south of the country will be a “slow operation to grind the enemy,” according to Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“This process will not be very fast,” Arestovych said in a statement posted on his Telegram account late Monday, “but will end with the installation of the Ukrainian flag over all the settlements of Ukraine.”
Some context: Ukrainian officials said Monday that military operations to retake Russian-held areas of the south are underway, with a source telling CNN that Ukraine’s troops had taken back four villages near the city of Kherson. The effort comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine has passed the six-month mark.