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Photo: Canadian Media
A worker drives a truck past a tractor harvesting sunflowers in a field in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Friday, September 9, 2022.
Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s defense ministry said Saturday that it is withdrawing troops from two areas in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive has made significant strides over the past week.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said troops would be regrouped from the Baraklya and Izyum regions to the Donetsk region. Izyum is the main base of the Russian army in the Kharkiv region.
Konashenkov said the move was “to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate the Donbass, one of the eastern parts of Ukraine that Russia has claimed.
The argument for the withdrawal to focus on Donetsk is similar to the rationale for Russia’s withdrawal from the Kyiv region earlier this year.
Ukrainian officials on Saturday claimed significant progress in a counteroffensive against Russian forces in the northeast of the country, saying Ukrainian forces had cut off vital supplies to front-line hotspots.
In the days before, Ukraine made visible progress south of the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in what could be the Ukrainian army’s biggest victory on the battlefield, as they thwarted Russia’s attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the melee. . Seven months of war.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Ole Nikolenko said Ukrainian troops had recaptured Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum that has long been concentrated on the Russian front as well as heavy artillery and other the location of the battle. Nikolenko tweeted a photo showing soldiers of Ukraine’s 92nd Independent Mechanized Battalion standing in front of what he said was a government building in Kupiansk, 73 kilometers north of Izyum.
The Ukrainian Security Service, known as the SBU, released a message hours later that it showed its troops were in Kupiansk, further suggesting it had been occupied by Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainian military did not immediately confirm access to the town, a railway junction Russia seized in February when its mayor surrendered to avoid civilian casualties.
Videos began circulating on social media late Saturday, also appearing to show Ukrainian troops at a roadside checkpoint on the outskirts of Izyum. A large statue with the city’s name can be seen in the footage. The Ukrainian army does not recognize control of the city.
Earlier on Saturday, the UK Ministry of Defence told reporters it believed the Ukrainians had advanced 50km south of Kharkiv and described Russian forces around Izyum as “increasingly isolated”.
“Russian troops may be caught off guard. The area is only lightly controlled and Ukrainian forces have captured or surrounded several towns,” the British military said, adding that the loss of Kupiansk would greatly affect Russian supply lines in the area .
The Washington-based think tank, the Institute for War Studies, also cited Ukraine’s huge gains, estimating that Kyiv has captured about 2,500 square kilometers in its northeastern breakthrough. The institute said it appeared that “disorganized Russian forces were[being]involved in the rapid Ukrainian advance.” They cited photos on social media of apparently Russian prisoners captured during the advance in Izyum and surrounding towns.
The same report said Ukrainian forces “could destroy Russian positions around Izyum if they cut off Russian ground lines of communication north and south of the town”.
Moscow did not immediately acknowledge or comment on Ukraine and its Western allies’ claims. However, the head of the Russian-appointed local administration, Vladislav Sokolov, said on social media that the Izum authorities had begun evacuating residents to Russia.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine took place amid an ongoing offensive around Kherson in the south. Analysts believe Russia may have sent reinforcements from the east around Kherson, giving the Ukrainians an opportunity to strike a weakened front.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Ukrainian television channels that the Russian troops in the region had no food or fuel as Kyiv cut off their supply lines.
“It’s like an avalanche,” he said, predicting that Russia would back down. “A line of defense will be shaken and it will collapse.”
The Ukrainian military was more cautious about the reported gains, claiming in a regular update on Saturday that it had seized “more than 1,000 square kilometers” from pro-Kremlin forces this week. It said “in some areas, Wehrmacht troops have penetrated enemy fortifications to a depth of 50km”, in line with the UK’s assessment, but gave no geographic details.
Kyiv officials have been tight-lipped for weeks as they plan a counteroffensive to retake territory occupied by Russia early in the war, and have called on residents not to share information on social media.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a nightly video address on Friday that Ukrainian forces had recaptured more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region since the start of the counteroffensive.
“We are gradually taking control of more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protecting our people,” Zelensky said.
He spoke after the Ukrainian governor of Kharkiv reported that the flag had been raised in Baraklia, a town that Ukrainian troops recaptured on Thursday after six months of Russian occupation.
“Baraklia is Ukraine! Today, under the leadership of the commander of the ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyy, we raised the Ukrainian flag together with the military,” Governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s emergency services reported that a 62-year-old woman was killed in a Russian missile attack in the Kharkiv region overnight. It said her body was found buried in the rubble of her home, which was razed to the ground by the strike.
Syniehubov also blamed Moscow for its blistering attacks on retaken settlements in Kyiv and other residential areas in the region in the latest developments. He said in a Telegram post that five civilians were hospitalized in the Igyum area and nine were injured elsewhere in the area.
In the embattled Donbass region south of Kharkov, the governor of Ukraine said Russian shelling near the city of Bakhmut caused civilian casualties overnight, a key target in the stalled Russian offensive in the city. Two people were killed and two others were injured in Bakhmut and the neighbouring village of Yahidne, Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock arrived in Kyiv on Saturday for an unannounced visit, saying that despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to increase pressure by withholding energy supplies from EU countries, European Will not tire of helping Ukraine.
Berbock said Germany would assist Ukraine in finding and clearing mines and other unexploded ordnance left by Russian forces in areas repelled by Ukrainian forces.
Despite progress by Ukraine’s armed forces, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and NATO leaders warned on Friday that Ukraine’s battle with Russia appears set to drag on for months. The war is entering a critical period, Blinken said, urging Ukraine’s Western backers to continue their support through what could be a difficult winter.
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