MOSCOW, September 25. /TASS/. Russian forces have expanded the gray zone near Verbovoye and Rabotino in the Zaporozhzhye Region, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, has said.

"The situation over the past two days has improved a little bit in the area that is important to us, because it is adjacent to the Ugledar area. I am referring to the Rabotino-Verbovoye section of the frontline."

"North of Verbovoye and also in the southwest direction from Rabotino, the Russian forces have managed to increase the gray zone by about 200 meters as a result of counterattack operations," he said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

On Monday, Vladimir Rogov, the chairman of the We Are Together With Russia movement, told TASS that Russian units had repelled several attacks by the Ukrainian military in this area in the evening of September 24 and during the night and dispersed and rolled back up to six companies of the Ukrainian infantry.

As the Russian Defense Ministry has said, the Ukrainian army has been making unsuccessful offensive attempts since June 4. On September 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine lost 71,500 troops, 543 tanks and almost 18,000 armored vehicles of various classes during this period. He stressed that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had produced no results.