Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told a briefing on Thursday that Ukrainian armed forces have now taken back 93 settlements and liberated over 2,400 square km since 21 September.

Over the last two weeks Ukraine has punched into around 55Km in their counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

Brigadier Gromov said his forces have advanced in to the east and south of Ukraine and he said that Russian troops are fighting slow down their advance out of Kupiansk which has now been retaken.

A Russian installed official in Kherson blasted Moscow and said that the Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu should to shoot himself, he suggested.

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Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the annexed Kherson region gave a stinging attack and publicly said that “Generals and Ministers” in Moscow are failing to understand what is actually happening on the frontlines.

He said, “Indeed, many say: if they were a defence minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves.”

“But you know the word ‘officer’ is an incomprehensible word for many.”

Speaking of the Russian Defence Minister historian Professor Sergey Radchenko told Sky News that Shooigu is “An apparatchik of distinguished pedigree but a now hopelessly tarnished military record – though his support will be essential for any power-grabbing plot.”

Elsewhere Russian forces are unable to hold the occupied territory in eastern and southern areas of Ukraine and “approximately 15,000 Russian troops” could “essentially be forced to surrender.”

Ukrainian troops are making significant gains in their counteroffensive and Russia troops have retreated in both the north and eastern fronts.

Ukraine has now retaken an enormous amount of their land back in the east of the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region and Russian troops are now left with virtually no options.

Vladimir Putin is facing a “strategic defeat” for the Russians in the south which will open the way for Ukraine to then focus on recapturing Crimea.

US official told The Telegraph: “It is clear that Russia no longer has the ability or willpower to defend key positions, and if the Ukrainians succeed in their goal of recapturing Kherson, then there is a very real possibility that it will ultimately be able to recapture Crimea.”

Royal United Services Institute Research Fellow Ed Arnold told Sky News, “At the moment, it looks like approximately 15,000 Russian troops could in a couple of scenarios essentially be forced to surrender, which would be a strategic defeat for the Russians in the south.”