Ukraine army makes breakthrough in Kharkiv region, Russia sends reinforcements

Published on: 09/10/2022 – 07:51 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that kyiv forces have retaken around 30 localities from Russian troops in the northeast of the country. A “very clear and very rapid” progression, recognized a pro-Russian official, while Russia sent troop reinforcements. Ukrainian military forces have managed to retake around 30 localities from Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, September 9. After remaining silent for a day, Moscow finally admitted that its defenses had been breached on part of the front line southeast of Ukraine’s second-largest city. “We are slowing down the enemy as much as possible, but several villages have already come under the control of the Ukrainian armed forces,” said Vitaly Gantchev, head of the pro-Russian administration in the Moscow-controlled part of the Kharkiv region. In his ritual Evening televised address, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said that the Ukrainian army had made a breakthrough in a few days in the Kharkiv region, and that it was also continuing its counter-offensives in Donbass and in the Kherson region. “Our army, intelligence units and security services are carrying out active operations in several strategic areas. They are doing so successfully,” he said. Russian troops ‘virtually isolated’ in IziumVitali Gantchev says pro-Russian forces are trying to evacuate civilians who want to flee the Ukrainian advance, including from the town of Izium, a strategic logistical hub for the Russian offensive in Donbass . An adviser to Volodimir Zelensky, Oleksiy Arestovych, claimed in a YouTube video that Russian troops based in Izium were virtually isolated, which would be a severe setback for Moscow. Hundreds of Russian soldiers have been killed since the front line was breached this week and hundreds more have been taken prisoner, he said, without it being possible to verify such reports, such as those provided by the Russians, no independent journalist being able to move freely in the region. Russian reinforcements in the Kharkiv regionAfter neglecting it to reinforce the southern front, Russia announced that it had sent reinforcements to the Kharkiv region and the Ministry of Defense released a video of military vehicles moving at high speed on a highway, without it being possible to say in which direction. The Ukrainian authorities, for their part, broadcast videos of soldiers waving the national flag in front of signposts in more towns and villages hitherto controlled by Russian forces. One of them shows soldiers passing in front of a highway sign welcoming Kupiansk, a city which was still located 72 hours ago about fifty kilometers from the front line. According to Western experts, the reconquest by the Ukrainian army of this railway junction would cut off important supply lines between Russia and the Donbass and would weaken the entire Russian system in the region, thousands of soldiers risking finding themselves surrounded in the Izioum sector. New bombardments The Ukrainian army had not recorded such rapid progress since Russian troops gave up taking Kyiv in March and withdrew hastily towards the border. “We see that the Ukrainians are achieving success in Kherson, we are now seeing it in Kharkiv, it’s very, very encouraging,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a press conference in Prague. The Ukrainian army general staff said on Friday that Russian troops were trying to take their wounded and damaged military equipment away in their retreat east of Kharkiv. bombing Ukraine’s second city, where ten people, including three children, were injured by rocket fire on Friday, Governor Oleh Synehoubov said. A hospital was also hit in the Sumy region, according to local authorities. With Reuters