Ukraine has taken its first settlement in Luhansk as its counteroffensive advances further into Russia-occupied territory, refusing to slow down after reclaiming thousands of miles from the Russian military machine in eastern Ukraine.
The occupied nation reported that its troops have advanced into territory recently abandoned by Russia following a six-month campaign, setting the door for a potential assault on Moscow’s occupying forces in the Donbas region as Kyiv seeks more Western armaments.
The area is within a few hundred miles from the Russian-conquered cities of Lysychansk and Severdonestsk, with the Ukrainian army declaring its intention to retake all of Luhansk, which has been largely occupied since 2014.
In response to the success of Ukraine’s recent offensive, the leader of a Moscow-backed administration in Donbas has called for immediate referendums on the territory joining Russia.
“The invaders are clearly in a panic,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a late-Monday television speech, adding that he was now concentrating on “speed” in liberated territories.
The velocity at which our forces are moving. The rate of resuming regular life,’ stated Zelensky.
Thursday, the Biden administration announced that Ukraine would receive an additional $600 million in military aid.
On Monday, a man walks over the ruins of a building that was recently destroyed by shelling during the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the city of Kadiivka (Stakhanov) in the Luhansk region.
Monday view of wreckage in the city of Izyum, Kharkiv area, Ukraine.
According to the White House, this is the twenty-first time the Defense Department has delivered guns and other equipment to Ukraine.
The shipment will include more of the ammunition and equipment that helped Ukrainian forces repel Russian forces in parts of the east and south.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked, “With amazing courage and resolve, the people of Ukraine are protecting their homeland and fighting for their future.”
The assets we are supplying have been meticulously calibrated to have the greatest impact on the battlefield and bolster Ukraine’s position at the bargaining table when the moment is right.
He tweeted, “I have ordered an additional $600 million drawdown to expedite our 21st supply of guns and equipment from @DeptofDefense stockpiles to Ukraine, while its defenders push back Russian invasion forces.” The United States has adopted the hashtag #UnitedWithUkraine.
The decision to move swiftly on new aid – on the heels of a nearly $2.9 billion infusion of aid and financing support announced last week and more than $3 billion announced in late August – underscores the U.S. intention to ensure that Ukraine can sustain its stunning counteroffensive, which was launched at the beginning of the month.
This most recent investment included $2.2 billion in long-term military finance that Blinken announced on a visit to Ukraine last week, and a $675 million weapons package that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin unveiled in Europe on the same day.
The United States declared that the $2.2 billion that Blinken promised in Kyiv is for Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO allies and regional security partners, who are potentially at risk of future Russian assault.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pictured on Thursday announcing an additional $600 million in aid to Ukraine.
Thursday, a Ukrainian national guardsman walks on a wrecked Russian armored personnel carrier at a checkpoint near the freshly retaken village of Izium.
A Russian APC that was on fire in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on Thursday during the Russian retreat
Moscow’s recent military defeat in northeast Ukraine was its worst since it withdrew its soldiers from territories near Kiev more than five months ago.
The current shipment of weaponry systems puts the entire amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine since the inauguration of President Joe Biden to approximately $15.9 billion.
Noting that Russia still has large troops and resources, U.S. officials observing the counteroffensive have avoided prematurely declaring victory.
And they are wary of what Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, might do to alter the tide.
But U.S. authorities have also made it plain that the precision weaponry and rocket systems provided by the U.S. and its partners – such as the High-mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and the High-speed Anti-radiation Missile, or HARM – were crucial to the rapid change in momentum.
This week, world leaders will hear from the Ukrainian president at the United Nations, and Zelensky has hinted that he may use his Wednesday video address to the UN General Assembly to urge countries to expedite weaponry and humanitarian deliveries.
Zelensky stated, ‘We are doing all possible to ensure that Ukraine’s needs on all fronts — defense, financial, economic, and diplomatic — are satisfied.’
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk, a province in the Donbas currently under the control of Russian troops, stated that Ukraine’s military forces had retaken control of the Luhansk settlement of Bilohorivka and were poised to retake the entire province.
Gaidai remarked on Telegram, “Every centimeter will be contested.” The adversary is preparing its defense. Therefore, we shall not march in.’
In a significant development for the counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s military forces said over the weekend that troops had crossed the Oskil River.
The river runs south into the Siversky Donets, which winds through the Donbas, the primary invasion target of Russia.
Luhansk, a bastion for Russia’s separatist proxies since 2014, has been totally under Russian control since July, following some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
A rebel leader backed by Russia in Donetsk, the other province in Donbas, reported that 13 persons were killed by artillery fire on Monday in the city of Donetsk.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the combat reports of either side.
Following the retreat of Russian forces from the city of Izium, Ukrainian authorities exhume the war-related deaths of civilians.
On Monday, the regional governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synehubov, announced that 146 remains buried without coffins had been exhumed.
According to early exams, four exhibited symptoms of torture, including hands tied behind their backs and, in one case, a rope around the neck.
Ukraine is still reviewing what transpired in regions that were under Russian control for months before a Russian force retreat earlier this month significantly altered the war’s dynamic.
On Monday, the regional governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synehubov, reported that Ukrainian forensic experts have unearthed 146 remains buried without coffins in a massive improvised cemetery in the woods near the retaken town of Izium.
Approximately 450 graves have been discovered at the site, according to Zelensky.
The workers spread out in groups beneath the trees and used shovels to exhume the partially decayed bodies, some of which, according to the locals, had been in the town streets for an extended period of time before being buried.
The government has not yet determined the cause of death of the majority of the victims, although officials have stated that scores were killed in the shelling of an apartment building and there are indications that others were killed by shrapnel.
According to preliminary tests, four showed evidence of torture, with their hands tied behind their backs or, in one case, a rope knotted around their neck, said Serhiy Bolvinov, the chief of the Kharkiv region’s investigative police, to Reuters at the cemetery.
The majority of the bodies, according to Bolvinov, appeared to be civilians. Locals have been identifying their deceased by comparing the numbers on the frail wooden crosses that mark their graves with the names of the deceased.
Bolvinov stated, “There were traces of torture on civilians and bound hands on soldiers.” According to the Ukraine, seventeen servicemen were buried in a mass grave at the location.
Reuters was unable to confirm Ukraine’s claims of torture.
On Monday, the Kremlin denied that Russia was responsible for the atrocities that Ukraine claims to have discovered in the reclaimed territory.
Russia has attacked a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, causing damage to the facility’s structures.
Kremlin forces attacked the Pivdennoukrainsk plant in the Mykolaiv area, causing a ‘huge explosion’ 300 yards from the reactors.
The attack caused damage to power plant structures, an adjacent hydroelectric power plant, and transmission lines.
At the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant today, a production building damaged by a Russian military strike is visible on the grounds.
Along the Southern Bug River is the Pivdennoukrainsk plant, also known as the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant.
Monday, Ukraine accused Russian soldiers of shelling the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power station in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine.
A bomb happened 300 yards away from the reactors and damaged power plant structures just after midnight on Monday, according to a statement from Ukraine’s nuclear power operator, Energoatom.
It published images of a large crater, which it claimed was created by the explosion, and stated that neither the reactors nor the crew were affected.
Russia endangers the entire globe. We must intervene before it’s too late,’ Zelensky wrote on social media.
The strikes would heighten global apprehension about the possibility of an atomic catastrophe, which was already heightened by the March capture of another Ukrainian nuclear power station in the south, Zaporizhia, by Russian forces.
Moscow has disregarded international requests to leave and demilitarize the region.
The IAEA said that a power line used to supply the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station was severed on Sunday, leaving the facility without backup power from the grid.