KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops piled pressure on retreating Russian forces on Tuesday, pressing a counteroffensive that has produced major gains and a stunning blow to Moscow’s military prestige.
It was not yet clear if the Ukrainian blitz in the northeast after months of little discernible movement could signal a turning point in the nearly seven-month war. But the country’s officials were buoyant, releasing footage showing their forces burning Russian flags and inspecting abandoned charred tanks. In one video, border guards tore down a poster that read, “We are one people with Russia.”
Momentum has switched back and forth before, and Ukraine’s American allies, for one, were careful not to declare a premature victory since Russian President Vladimir Putin still has troops and resources to tap.
Still, the Kremlin struggled to respond to the defeat, its largest since its forces abandoned a botched attempt to capture Kyiv early in the war.
Late Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his troops have retaken more than 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) — an area more than twice the size of Luxembourg — in a matter of weeks.
”The movement of our troops continues,” he said.
In the latest claim, Ukraine’s border guard services said the army took control of Vovchansk — a town just 3 kilometers (2 miles) from Russia seized on the first day of the war.
While every individual claim of military success could not be verified, Russia acknowledged that it has withdrawn troops from areas in the northeastern region of Kharkiv in recent days.
Reports of chaos abounded as Russian troops pulled out — as well as claims that they were surrendering en masse. Ukraine officials have said they have captured so many soldiers that they are struggling to house them. The claim could not be immediately verified.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said Kyiv is trying to persuade even more Russian soldiers to give up, launching shells filled with flyers ahead of their advance.
“Russians use you as cannon fodder. Your life doesn’t mean anything for them. You don’t need this war. Surrender to Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the flyers read.
In one indication of the blow sustained by Moscow, British intelligence said that one premier force, the 1st Guards Tank Army, had been “severely degraded” during the invasion and that “Russia’s conventional force designed to counter NATO is severely weakened. It will likely take years for Russia to rebuild this capability.”
The retreat didn’t stop Russia from pounding Ukrainian positions, however. Early Tuesday, it shelled the city of Lozova in the Kharkiv region, killing three people and injuring nine, said regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.
And Ukrainian officials said Russia kept up shelling around Europe’s largest nuclear facility, where fighting has raised fears of a nuclear disaster. The Nikopol area, which is across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was shelled six times during the night but no injuries were immediately reported, said regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
Strikes have also continued unabated on the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest and one that has been hammered by artillery for months.
Zelenskyy specifically criticized Russia for targeting energy infrastructure in its attacks over the past days. “Hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians found themselves in the dark — without electricity. Houses, hospitals, schools, communal infrastructure … sites that have absolutely nothing to do with the infrastructure of the armed forces of our country.”
He said it could only point to one thing. “This is a sign of the desperation of those who contrived this war. This is how they react to the defeat of Russian forces in the Kharkiv region. They can’t do anything to our heroes on the battlefield.”
The counteroffensive has provoked rare public criticism of Putin’s war. Meanwhile, some of its defenders in Russia played down the idea that the success belonged to Ukraine, blaming instead Western weapons and fighters for the losses.
“It’s not Ukraine that attacked Izium, but NATO,” read a headline in the state-supported Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, referring to one of the areas where Russia said it has withdrawn troops.
Elsewhere, residents of a Russian village just across the border from Ukraine were evacuated after shelling by Ukrainian troops killed one person, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
The report cited the head of the local administration in Logachevka, who said Ukrainian troops opened fire at a border checkpoint.
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Arhirova reported from Kyiv.
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© 2022 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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“pressing a counteroffensive that has produced major gains and a stunning blow to Moscow’s military prestige.”,,,,,so what the hell is Tucker Carlson doing nightly trashing the Ukrainians, crying to defund them, and bringing so-called experts on his show to predict that the Russians are winning a war at the same time the American armed Ukrainians are taking back 5-6 major cities this week, including the heights of Balaclava where in the 1850s the British made “The Charge of the Light Brigade” which forced the Czar to sue for peace? “Quis Superabit” Who shall excel them? Better 50 billion invested in the Ukrainian resistance than face the Russians with American blood, soldiers, or nukes. Ukrainians are intercepting Russian soldier cell phones describing the fear and desertions and magnitude of the captured Russian ranking officers, whose now mostly far eastern Russian drafted troops flee at the sound of American guns in the hands of abused Ukrainian citizens. Kiev itself is considered the heart of Russian historical state creation. They are one people but for guys like Putin who like Democrats in America would divide, conquer, and confuse people who just sought to break away from the dehumanization of socialism and live free or die, who Putin seeks to cower with his deadly crimes against humanity, who like Hitler forgot that what goes around comes around as well. Russians are already evacuating relatives from Crimea and selling properties.
The question has now become Which propaganda do you believe, Russia, Ukraine, or Biden’s?
My wife was born in Ukraine and speaks to her sister in Kiev daily. He nephew has been trained as a medic and will join the front lines soon. This week the Pride of Putins Tank corp designed to protect Moscow just got ground to bits with “Made In America” Weapons. Her other nephew who is in Ukrainian high tech intercepted a call from a Russian Soldier on the front line calling home claiming he was about the only one of his command who hasn’t retreated or deserted. Many of the high ranking officers have been killed or captured. Putin as a desperate move tried to shut off 25% of the Ukrainian energy electric grid, which is probably why the CHinese want California to lead the USA into electric vehicles. Most remaining Russian troops are from far East Russia as Putin cannot afford to lose too many more Western Russian Mocivite types lest he be over thrown. Russian Conscripts are just around the corner which should make him even less popular with his own people and more vulnerably desperate.
GOOD> Hope his own people overthrow that hack.