Ukraine accelerates its counteroffensive in the east in the face of apparent Russian impotence

The reasons for the Ukrainian success must be sought in Western support, both in intelligence work and in the delivery of war material, but also, analysts point out, in a certain disorganization and shortage of Russian contingents that could have facilitated the rapid advance Ukraine in its lightning operation. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a political research organization focused on US national security, Ukraine has managed to collapse the Russian northern front in Donbas and the withdrawal of Russian troops who were in the surroundings of the city of Izium is not being controlled or strategic, as Moscow claims, but rather a hasty flight to escape the siege to which the Ukrainian forces announced the liberation of the city on Saturday. The same analysts point out that the lightning operation launched by Ukraine on September 6 has managed to penetrate the lines hitherto controlled travels through Russia up to 70 kilometers in some places. If the information is confirmed, Ukraine would have managed to seize more territory in five days than Russia has managed to occupy since April and the counteroffensive could be considered Ukraine’s greatest victory in the war since the liberation of the Kiev oblast. The capture of Izium: a turning point The Ukrainian advance has reconfigured the course of the war. Russia lost Izium on Saturday. The city had become a Russian stronghold for directing and coordinating the invasion of eastern Ukraine since February. It took Moscow weeks and a bloody battle to seize it in the spring. Ukraine have won it back from retreating defenders in a matter of days. Izium may be the biggest success of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in recent days, but it is not the only one. Balekleya, Chkalovske and a dozen other towns would have been liberated by Ukraine during a weekend in which there have been images of Ukrainian soldiers raising blue and yellow flags, towing Russian tanks, or ripping up posters with Moscow propaganda as they they advanced. 🇺🇦 counteroffensive is ongoing in the Kharkiv region. Dozens of villages and towns have been liberated. #UAarmy reached Hoptivka check point, at the border of the terrorist state.
🇺🇦 will restore its territorial integrity, including Donbas and Crimea.
Prepare to swim, occupiers. pic.twitter.com/6L3hO7MvJN— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 11, 2022 According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, this Sunday, some 150 Russian soldiers would have left the towns of Borshcheva and Artemivka, in the region of Kharkov, in two buses, a truck and 19 “stolen” cars, leaving behind important supplies and material, including four Kamaz trucks and 20 Tiger armored vehicles. In addition, according to kyiv, more Russian forces had been beaten in retreat from several towns in Kherson province. Russian withdrawal… or withdrawalMoscow does not officially recognize that Ukraine is forcing them to withdraw in the east of the country. Its Defense Ministry has acknowledged the withdrawal of its troops in some areas although, unlike kyiv, it does not attribute it to military defeats but to tactical reasons to reinforce positions in the neighboring Donetsk region. In fact, Moscow reported this Sunday that its forces had managed to prevent the “enemy” from breaking through one of the defense lines, according to the Interfax agency. These attacks have been recognized by Ukraine, which describes them as operations of aerial reconnaissance and sabotage to hinder their advance. But kyiv acknowledges that Russian bombs have fallen this Sunday in 15 Ukrainian towns including Dergachi, Kramatorsk, Kostiantinivka, Dnipro, Voznesensk and Nikolaev, among others. Is Ukraine winning? Most analysts agree that the counteroffensive Ukrainian lightning in Kharkiv may mark a turning point in the war. However, there are those who point out that Russia still has cards to play. On the one hand, the energy war. The one that wages in Ukraine itself and against the West. Late this Sunday afternoon, the President of Ukraine, Volodomir Zelenski, denounced that Russia had left the Kharkov and Donetsk regions in the dark and that it had partially cut off the electricity supply in those of Zaporizhia, Dnipro and Sumy. “Los terroristas rusos siguen siendo terroristas y atacan las infraestructuras críticas. No hay objetivos militares, sólo el objetivo de dejar a la gente sin luz ni calor”, escribía Zelenski.Повністю знеструмлено Харківську й Донецьку області, частково – Запорізьку, Дніпропетровську, Сумську. Рос_йськ_ терористи залишаються терористами і б’ють по критичній іnfrastrukturі. ( This Sunday, the Russian energy ministry insisted that it would be “impossible” to sell gas or oil to those countries that put a cap on prices, something that the European Union intends to do. Threats and blackmail in this sense can cause a weakening of support for Ukraine when the cold arrives and Moscow knows it. Russia could turn to General Winter again. Nor should we forget that Russia is a nuclear power and analysts such as Guillermo Pulido, from ‘Armies Magazine’, do not rule out that Moscow was capable of resorting to an ‘atomic demonstration’ that will stress the conflict at a geopolitical level in the face of its defeats in a scenario conventional war that Ukraine is violating with an arsenal ceded by Western powers. So far in the war, and according to Ukrainian sources, Russia has lost 52,650 soldiers in the war. 400 in the last 24 hours alone.