President: ‘Ukraine Recapturing Lost Territories’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine’s president said Wednesday that his forces recaptured several areas from Russia, but his remarks were overshadowed by reports that a British aid worker was tortured to death.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s remarks follow days of indications that Ukrainian forces had a possible breakthrough in the eastern Russian-occupied Kharkiv region.
Zelensky declined to name which places had been retaken, saying that “now is not the time to name” them.
Separately, U.S. officials said Ukraine was making “slow but meaningful progress” against Russian forces in south and eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv has also been linked to attacks on the Crimea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Yet, Ukraine’s counter-offensive came amid ongoing human suffering, with officials confirming Wednesday that the body of a British aid worker “captured by Russian proxies” in April was handed to Ukraine.
“SIGNS OF TORTURE”
Investigators suggested the human remains of Paul Urey, 45, from Warrington, Cheshire, showed “possible signs of unspeakable torture.”
He was captured in April by pro-Russian separatists, along with another Briton, Dylan Healey, said Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
The two men were later charged with “mercenary activities” by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR).
But in July, the Russian proxy authorities announced that Urey had died due to “illness and stress.”
Several foreigners captured by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine face potential death sentences on what critics view as trumped charges of being mercenaries.