Ukraine has achieved astonishing advances in a swift counteroffensive that has taken the Kremlin off guard. Intelligence specialists are hailing this as a “major turning point” in the six-month conflict.
It led to the recapture of numerous important towns in the east as Vladimir Putin’s soldiers abandoned a collapsing lines in confusion.
Moscow has openly speculated that their invasion will result in a humiliating defeat due to the rapidity of Kiev’s progress, as evidenced by images of Ukrainian troops raising the flag in liberated towns after marching more than 50 kilometres.
Among the towns captured by Ukrainian forces is Kupiansk, a vital rail hub whose loss would seriously impede Russian supply routes. There are also tales of Putin’s troops and accomplices fleeing Izyum, a vital logistical hub for the invasion, according to reports.
The Ukrainian advance has been so fast that departing Russian troops have left behind a logistical windfall of ammunition, equipment, and most importantly, presumably fully-functioning heavy weapons, the type of which Kyiv has been begging its Western allies for for months.
The operation launched south of Kharkiv on Tuesday surprised the poorly defended Russian lines, prompting Western intelligence services to speak of mass retreats, mass surrenders, and mass losses, which the Russian Ministry of Defense has described as a “re-grouping.”
Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, stated on Saturday that troops evacuating the Balakliya and Izyum regions would be reunited in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers raise a flag atop a Kupiansk rooftop as their lightning offensive causes the collapse of Russian lines.
Ukrainian soldiers pose for a photograph beside the sign for Izium, an important logistics hub and prize grab.
Ukrainian soldiers pose for a photograph in the recently freed village of Vasylenkove in the Kharkiv region.
In Balakliya, Kharkiv region, destroyed armored vehicles litter the road after Ukrainian forces breached Russian lines.
A Ukrainian soldier raises his fist in triumph as his unit approaches Bakhmut in the Donetsk area.
The blue patch symbolizes about 1,600 square kilometers of territory reclaimed by Ukraine, and the counteroffensive’s focus on Limán and Lysychansk.
Zelensky applauds Russia’s decision to withdraw.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine stated that Russian forces were making a “wise decision” by fleeing his country’s counteroffensive, which had achieved substantial gains in the east and south.
Mr. Zelensky’s remarks were made in a video published by his office mere hours after Moscow’s announcement that it was withdrawing soldiers from a portion of the Kharkiv region, where Ukrainian forces have seized major ground in recent days.
The president stated, “The Russian army is currently displaying its greatest strength: turning its back.”
Of course, their decision to run is a wise one.
Natalia Popova, advisor to the head of the Kharkiv regional council, posted on social media photographs showing Ukrainian servicemen holding their flag in front of the city hall in Kupiansk as the Russian flag was crumpled at their feet.
The town was captured by Russia within days after their February invasion. ‘Kupiansk is Ukraine. Glory to the Ukrainian military,’ wrote Popova.
Putin’s soldiers have lost control of an estimated 3,000 square kilometers of territory over the past few days. Yesterday, Russian military journalists reported that their troops evacuated Izyum on the sole available road.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday evening that 30 settlements had been liberated in the Kharkiv region over the past several days as his soldiers exploited a chink in the Russian lines.
If true, the capture of Kupiansk is a major blow for Putin, cutting off supplies to as many as 10,000 Kremlin forces. Boxes of ammo left behind in the city demonstrate the swiftness of their retreat.
According to the most recent accounts, the city of Limán surrendered to Ukrainian liberators with little fight.
It is about 40 kilometers from the twin cities of Lysychnask and Severodonetsk, which fell to Russian forces at the beginning of July following a protracted and arduous fight.
There are even unconfirmed rumors that Ukrainian soldiers had entered the international airport in Donetsk, the site of two different battles between Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces in 2014 and 2015.
The airport has been under rebel control for more than eight years, and its return to Ukrainian sovereignty would mark Kyiv’s first recovery of territory lost prior to Putin’s Feb. 24 assault.
This morning, Ukrainian forces were photographed carrying their national flag as they claimed to have recaptured Kupyansk, a claim Russia contests.
On Thursday, September 8, a commanding officer of an anti-air unit of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces loads a rocket launcher into his SUV in preparation to support infantry in liberating Balakliya in eastern Ukraine.
Earlier last week, Ukrainian soldiers recaptured Balakliya by destroying a Russian tank.
Despite rumors that he had fled Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the breakaway Donestk People’s Republic, reported on the combat.
The situation in Lima “remains pretty precarious,” he added in a driving automobile video. Similar to a number of other northern regions of the republic.
According to Serhiy Haidai, the Russia-appointed governor of the Luhansk area, Ukrainian forces have even reached the outskirts of Lysychansk.
“Lysychnask is an outstanding Ukrainian city. There will be a great deal of reconstruction,’ he stated in a coded communication.
In one of the retaken villages, Hrakove, eyewitnesses reported seeing burned-out military trucks with the reviled ‘Z’ emblem of the Kremlin assault.
More proof of Russian crimes was also present. One local man revealed that the occupiers compelled him to bury two remains under threat of gunfire. The suspect then took the police to a grave containing two tortured bodies.
Maria Avdeeva, a security analyst who visited Hrakove three days after its liberation, told The Mail on Sunday that the last 50 inmates were in’very terrible health’ after sheltering in basements for six months while ‘terrified.’ They could hear the generators supplying electricity to the Russians, but they had no power, no phone connection, and their village was nearly completely demolished, so they had no idea what was going on.
On September 9, Ukrainian forces captured the settlement of Hrakove, which was pictured with a wrecked vehicle bearing the Russian Z designation.
A local guy helps police exhume two remains from a grave as part of an inquiry into war crimes in a village recently liberated by Ukrainian forces.
Why has the Ukrainian offensive been so effective?
After resisting Russian offensives to a stalemate for seven months, what explains Ukraine’s sudden, chaotic victory on the offensive?
It appears to be the result of a clever strategy devised by Oleksandr Syrskyi, who organized the defense of Kiev.
The objective of the initial phase was to draw Russian forces to the southern province of Kherson by suggesting an impending counteroffensive to recover the provincial capital.
Taras Berezovets, press officer for the Bohun brigade of Ukraine’s special forces, stated, “[It] was a massive special misinformation campaign.”
‘Meanwhile, our troops in Kharkiv were provided with the finest western armaments, primarily American,’ he stated.
These included HARM missiles supplied by the United States that were supposed to eliminate Russian air defense radars, paving the way for Ukrainian air support.
After the Russians had amassed some 30,000 men near Kherson to repel the counterattack, precise missiles destroyed the permanent bridges spanning the Dnipro River in their rear, essentially stranding them.
As a result, Russian defenses in the Kharkiv region were poorly defended and lacked sufficient strategic reserves to repair holes if the Ukrainians succeeded in breaking through, which they did.
The Ukrainians amassed tanks in the Kharkiv region, which was ignored by the Russian commanders, and then launched a classic lightning offensive to break through the Russian lines.
To truly understand why the Russian lines disintegrated in such a spectacular manner, one must examine the caliber of the troops manning them.
According to reports, the trenches surrounding Kharkiv were defended by’slave soldiers’ conscripted against their will in the breakaway DPR who lacked the will to fight.
According to reports, these soldiers abandoned their posts and equipment in order to leave, with some presumably disguised themselves as civilians, thereby transforming the Ukrainian operation into a manhunt.
There are reports that the Ukrainians killed hundreds and captured thousands.
Lastly, the Russian army has been ravaged by corruption at every level for decades, leaving its equipment unmaintained, its people ill armed, and its morale at an all-time low.
It is only a week since Kyiv announced the launch of a long-awaited counterattack to retake Russian-occupied territory hundreds of kilometers away at the opposite end of the battlefront in Kherson, Ukraine.
Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, asserts that Kiev has taken advantage of Russia’s deployment of its greatest forces to bolster defenses in Kherson. “This is enormous,” he said. Once troops are driven back, it may be difficult to stop the retreat. If Russia cannot mobilize further soldiers, they are in grave danger.
Vitaly Ganchev, a Russia-appointed stooge in the Kharkiv region, admitted: “The mere penetration of our defenses is already a significant triumph for the Ukrainian armed forces.”
The British Ministry of Defense told reporters earlier on Saturday that the speed, scope, and severity of the Ukrainian assault certainly surprised Russian forces.
“The area was very tenuously held, and Ukrainian soldiers had overrun or encircled a number of towns,” the British military stated, adding that the loss of Kupiansk would have a significant impact on Russian supply lines.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a prominent US-based think tank, disorganized Russian soldiers appeared to have been caught in the quick Ukrainian assault. They referenced social media photographs of what appeared to be Russian prisoners captured during the advance around Izyum and its environs.
The Institute for the Study of War stated that the recapture of Kupiansk would “severely damage” Russian ground communication links.
Russian social media aired pictures of traffic jams caused by fleeing combatants, revealing that among them were collaborators who feared retaliation from Ukrainian police or partisans. In another defeat for Putin, images of a caught cop on his knees surfaced last week.
It is believed that he is Lieutenant General Andrei Sychevoi, the highest-ranking Russian officer captured since World War II. Intelligence analyst and director of the Centre for Defence Reforms think tank Oleksandr V. Danylyuk stated, “We are witnessing a significant turning point.” You can expect some more surprises soon.’
The defense ministry of Moscow released a video purporting to show reinforcements pouring into the Kharkiv region. Prominent pro-war and nationalist figures, frequently with military ties, who accuse the defense commanders of botching the invasion, are, however, increasingly dissenting.
These individuals include the powerful Igor Girkin, a former intelligence colonel active in the pro-Russian separatist uprising in Donbas eight years ago, who used military sources to explain the “outrageous audacity” of Ukrainian attacks.
He has projected that Russia will be “completely defeated” by the end of the war.