Blinken says Ukraine has regained 50% of its territory under Russian occupation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine has regained half of Russia's territory.

Blinken stressed that Kiev faced a very difficult fight “to win more.

“Already received about 50% of what was initially caught,” said Blinken in an interview for CNN on Sunday.

These are still relatively early days of counterattack. It's hard,” he said.

Hopes that Ukraine could quickly remove Moscow's forces from its territory after the start of a summer counteroffensives are fading as Kiev troops struggle to break up Russian-based positions in the south and east of the country.

Late last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky was quoted as saying that progress against Russian forces was the slower “than”, Reuters writes.