The ukrainian army continue your counteroffensive in the region of Kharkiv, in the east of the country, where it is gaining ground, which has forced the Russian troops to “regroup” with a withdrawal towards the Donetsk region.
“In recent days, more than a thousand square kilometers of Ukrainian territory have been liberated from the occupants. In some directions, units of the Defense Forces embedded themselves in the enemy defenses to a depth of 50 kilometers,” the command reported on Saturday. Ukrainian in his part of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported in his late-night address that the army had liberated and seized control of more than 30 towns in the Kharkov region and reclaimed more than 2,000 square kilometers of land since the beginning of September. “Part of the peoples of the region continue actions to control and secure the territory, we are gradually taking control of new localities,” he added. “These last few days, the Russian army has shown us the best it has: its back. After all, it did what it had to do: flee,” he said. “There is no place in Ukraine for the occupiers and there never will be,” he added.
According to the American Institute for War Studies (ISW), “Ukrainian forces are likely to be mopping up pockets of disorganized Russian forces trapped by the rapid Ukrainian advance towards Kupiansk, Izyum and the Oskil River, given the number of images of Russian prisoners in the last 48 hours.
One of the latest cities Ukraine claims to have recaptured is Kupiansk, taken by Moscow troops shortly after the start of the Ukraine invasion on February 24. The total reconquest of this city of 27,000 inhabitants would be a severe blow for Moscow, since it is key to supplying other Russian positions on the Eastern Front.
logistics chains
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov expressed hope that “with a few more successes on the front lines, maybe not big, but victorious, the Russian troops will break out and they will because we currently destroy their logistics chains.” . “Their spirits will drop … it will be like an avalanche, it will break and crumble the defense line” Russian, he said.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has forced the Russian Army to take action. The Russian Ministry of Defense released this Friday videos of troop movements and war equipment in the direction of Kharkov, to inform this Saturday of a “regrouping” towards the Donetsk region. According to defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov, “for three days an operation was carried out to reduce and transfer the group of troops from the Izyum and Balakliya group to the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic”, recognized by Moscow two days before the start of the military campaign in Ukraine.
Defense has preferred to keep quiet about the Ukrainian successes in its part of the war and limited itself to listing Ukrainian targets destroyed, in particular an attack with high-precision missiles against command posts of the 92 motorized brigade of the Ukrainian Army and the Kraken volunteer units in Balakliya and Kupiansk. Balakliya was taken the day before by Ukrainian troops while part of Kupiansk was abandoned this Saturday by Russian forces, according to several Ukrainian and pro-Russian bloggers, without the information being confirmed by Moscow.
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The Russian Presidency has also kept a deathly silence on the matter: this Saturday the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, voted in the municipal and regional elections held in Russia and participated in the first day of celebrations for the 875th anniversary of Moscow, without dedicating one word on the matter. “The Kremlin refuses to publicly address Ukraine’s successes in the Kharkov region, but the counter-offensive will likely force Russian President Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting with senior Russian political and security officials,” the ISW found.
Meanwhile, encouraged by the successes on the Kharkov front, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in kyiv this Saturday on an unannounced visit with the purpose, she said, of “showing that we will be supporting Ukraine as long as necessary with shipment of weapons and with humanitarian and financial aid”. Baerbock stressed that for six months Ukrainians have been fighting “for their lives, their families and their friends”, with which they defend “not only their right to peace and freedom but also our European order” and stated that he wants to send a signal to Germany against the danger that there will be a fatigue among the citizens regarding solidarity with Ukraine.