The rapid fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Moscow’s worst defeat since its troops were forced to withdraw from the capital. Kyiv in March. Ukraine saw this as a turning point in the six-month-old war in which thousands of Russian soldiers fled, leaving behind ammunition and equipment.
The Russian army used Izium as a logistics base for one of its main operations – a month-long attack from the north on the Donbass region adjacent to Donetsk and Luhansk.
Quoted by the state-run TASS news agency RussiaThe U.S. Defense Ministry said it had ordered troops to leave the surrounding area and consolidate operations elsewhere in Donetsk.
TASS reported that the head of Russia’s administration in Kharkiv asked residents to evacuate the province and flee to Russia to “save lives”. Eyewitnesses described a traffic jam of cars in which people were leaving Russian-held territory.
If the reported gains hold, it would be a severe blow to Russia, which Western intelligence services say has suffered heavy casualties. It will also be a big boost for Ukraine, which is eager to supply weapons to the West, it deserves their continued support.
Amid threats from Russian president, Kyiv under pressure to demonstrate progress before winter begins Vladimir Putin All energy shipments to Europe would be halted if Brussels goes ahead with a proposal to limit the price of Russian oil exports.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said in Kyiv that the Ukrainian military has demonstrated that they are capable of defeating the Russian army with the weapons provided.
“And so I repeat: the more weapons we get, the faster we will win, and the faster this war will end,” he said.
In his nightly video address on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s armed forces have occupied an area of about 2,000 square kilometers (770 sq mi) since retaliation was launched earlier this month.
“The Russian army is claiming the title of the fastest army in the world…keep running!” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian officials declined to confirm that they had recaptured Izium, but Yermak previously posted a photo of soldiers on its outskirts and tweeted an emoji of grapes. The name of the city means “raisins.”
The announcement of the Russian withdrawal came hours after Ukrainian troops moved north to capture the city of Kupiansk, the only railway hub that supplies Russia’s entire front line in northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials posted photos of their soldiers early Saturday, waving the country’s blue-and-yellow flag in front of Kupiansk’s city hall.
It abruptly cut thousands of Russian soldiers from supplies along a front that has seen some of the war’s most intense fighting.
Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, called the Russian pullback “a major defeat” in comments on Telegram.
mechanized attack
Ukraine has been talking of a major counter-offensive in the south for weeks, which is underway, though details are sparse.
Russia still occupies extensive territory in the Donbass and to the south near the Crimean peninsula that it seized in 2014.
A few days earlier, Kyiv’s forces burst through the front line to the northeast and have since recaptured dozens of towns and villages in a swift mechanized attack, advancing dozens of kilometers (miles) a day.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hannah Malayar, issued a warning note urging people not to report ahead of time that towns have been “taken” because of the sightings of Ukrainian troops. He said troops entered Balaklia a few days ago, but it was only on Saturday that Ukraine regained control of the city.
In Harakov, one of dozens of villages recaptured by the Ukrainian advance, Reuters saw burned vehicles bearing the “Z” symbol of Russia’s invasion. Ammunition boxes were strewn with rubbish at the places the Russians had left in apparent haste.
“Hello everyone, we are from Russia,” was spray-painted on one wall. Three bodies were lying in a white body bag in a yard.
The regional police chief, Volodymyr Tymoshenko, said Ukrainian police moved the previous day, and checked the identities of local residents, who had been living under Russian occupation since the second day of the invasion.
“The first task is to provide them with the necessary assistance. The next task is to document the crimes committed by the Russian invaders on the areas they temporarily occupied,” he said.
‘The battle is drawing near’
A witness in Valuyki, a town in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, told Reuters he saw families from Kupiyansk eating and sleeping in their cars by the side of the road.
“I was in the market today and saw a lot of people from Kupiyansk. They say half the city was taken by the Ukrainian army and Russia is retreating… The battle is drawing to a close,” the witness said. Told.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said officials were providing food and medical aid to people queuing at a crossing in Russia. Senator Andrey Turchak of the Kremlin United Russia party reported more than 400 vehicles at the border.
Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets hit the city of Kharkiv on Saturday evening, killing at least one person and damaging several homes, part of an escalation in shelling since Kyiv’s counter-offensive.
Reuters could not independently confirm the Battlefield accounts.
“The progress is huge. There are sporadic battles, but most of the occupiers are on the run,” Luhansk regional governor Serhi Gaidai told Ukrainian television on Saturday.