LUGANSK, October 26. /TASS/. Fighters of Russia’s Battlegroup North took control of about 50 square kilometers in the Sumy and Kharkov Regions over the past week, achieving the best results in liberating settlements in the special military operations zone, military expert Andrey Marochko reported.

He noted that last week, Russian forces freed 13 settlements: two in the Kharkov Region, four in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), one in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, and six in the Zaporozhye Region.

"The best results in liberating occupied territories over the past week were achieved by servicemen of the Battlegroup North, who gained control of about 50 square km of territory in the Sumy and Kharkov Regions," he wrote on his VKontakte social media page after analyzing data released by the Russian Defense Ministry.