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Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that it was withdrawing troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive had made significant progress in the previous week.
The announcement came after days of apparent Ukrainian advances south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could be the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since thwarting a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war.
According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, troops will be regrouped from the Balakliya and Izyum areas and relocated to the eastern Donetsk region. Izyum was a major Russian force base in the Kharkiv region, and earlier this week, social media videos showed Balakliya residents joyfully cheering as Ukrainian troops moved in.
Konashenkov said the Russian move was being made “in order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas,’” one of the eastern Ukraine regions that Russia has declared sovereign.
The claim of a withdrawal to concentrate on Donetsk is similar to Russia’s justification for withdrawing its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this year after failing to take the capital.
Ukrainian officials claimed major gains in the Kharkiv region earlier Saturday, claiming that their troops had cut off vital supplies to Izyum.
Oleh Nikolenko, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, also suggested that troops had retaken Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum that had long been a focus on the Russian front line and the site of heavy artillery and other fighting. Nikolenko posted a photo on Twitter of soldiers in front of a government building in Kupiansk, 73 kilometers (45 miles) north of Izyum.
The Ukrainian Security Service announced hours later that troops were in Kupiansk, implying that it had been seized. The military did not immediately confirm its entry into the town, which Russia seized in February.
“We are gradually taking control over more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protection for our people,” Zelenskyy said.
He spoke after the Ukrainian governor of Kharkiv reported that the national flag had been raised over Balakliya, recaptured by Ukrainian troops Thursday following six months of occupation.
“Balakliya is Ukraine!” Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in a post on Telegram.
A 62-year-old woman was killed in a Russian missile strike in the Kharkiv region when her home was flattened overnight, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
Syniehubov also accused Moscow of annihilating Kyiv-retaken settlements. Five civilians were hospitalized in the Izyum district, he said via Telegram, while nine others were injured elsewhere in the region.
In the besieged Donbas, the Ukrainian governor said civilians were killed and injured overnight by Russian shelling near Bakhmut, a key target of Russia’s stalled offensive. According to Pavlo Kyrylenko on Telegram, two people were killed and two others were injured in Bakhmut and the neighboring village of Yahidne.
According to the city’s Ukrainian mayor, Dmytro Orlov, electricity and water have been restored in the Russina-held city of Enerhodar, which is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
In recent weeks, Enerhodar and its Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have been repeatedly shelled, which Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of committing. Fears of a radiation leak have been raised at the plant, which has been cut off from outside power sources; the facility has been forced to rely on power from its only operational reactor for system cooling and other safety measures.
Orlov stated that workers from the plant assisted in restoring Enerhodar’s power, but it was unclear whether the electricity came from the plant or from or from a nearby thermal generating station.
Also on Saturday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv and stated that Europe would not tire of assisting Ukraine, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to put pressure on Ukraine by withholding energy supplies.
According to Baerbock, Germany will assist Ukraine in locating and removing unexploded ordnance left by Russian troops in areas where they have been pushed back.
Despite Ukraine’s gains, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Friday that the war would likely last months. Blinken said the conflict had reached a tipping point and urged Ukraine’s Western backers to stay strong through what could be a difficult winter.
Source:HT
