Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, said on Tuesday that his country’s forces are regaining lost ground with a series of offensive operations.

In his nightly video speech, he described Ukraine’s battlefield position as the strongest state it has been in for a period of more than four and a half years of this war, and added that the delivery of more air defense systems by Western allies could make it even stronger.

Zelensky, citing the assessment of senior commanders, for the first time mentioned the “Welles” operation with gas pipelines in the northeast of Ukraine, and referred to an airborne operation in the east and the “Vivaldi” operation in the north of the country to prevent Russia’s advance.

He said the location of the Welles operation is near Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast, a city that Ukraine retook in late 2022 and has been under constant pressure from Russia ever since.

Zelensky said: “It is a powerful operation, well-designed, and technology-driven. The Russians tried to break through from our positions.”