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| Vadim Belikov/Associated Press |
Ukrainian forces advanced on a strategic city in the country’s east, threatening to isolate thousands of Russian troops after four days of rapid gains that caught Moscow off guard and have altered the momentum of the war.
The breakthrough has demonstrated for the first time that Ukraine, with the help of Western military aid, can recapture territory from Russian forces occupying swaths of the south and east of the country.
After punching through Russian defenses in the northeastern Kharkiv region earlier this week, Ukrainian forces raced more than 30 miles toward Kupyansk, seizing the initiative after months of grinding combat.
Ukraine’s advances prompted Russia to rush reinforcements to Kharkiv and raised the prospect of the biggest reversal for Moscow since it was forced to withdraw forces from around the capital, Kyiv, in March.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday his country’s forces had retaken control of more than 30 towns and villages in the Kharkiv region in recent days and that measures were being taken to secure the gains. It couldn’t immediately be determined what reserves Ukraine has available to shore up the territory it seized and expand on its gains.
But images of the Ukrainian flag being raised over local government buildings and residents greeting soldiers with tears of joy have boosted morale across the country after months on the defensive. One video showed Ukrainian soldiers in the city of Balakliya clambering on top of an armored personnel carrier to tear down a banner reading, “We are with Russia! One people!” --->READ MORE HERE
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| REUTERS/Ammar Awad |
Ukraine's rapid territorial gains have caught Russia off guard at a vulnerable section of their front line in an attack that threatens an important supply hub used by Moscow in the east, military analysts said.
The surprise advance was Ukraine's most dramatic of the war so far and came in northeastern Kharkiv region hundreds of kilometres from the southern Black Sea region of Kherson where the brunt of a Ukrainian counteroffensive was expected. read more
Moscow has long held around a fifth of Ukraine's territory in the south and east. It heavily reinforced its troops in the south as Kyiv talked up plans to attack there in recent months, but that left Russian forces exposed elsewhere, said Konrad Muzyka, director of the Rochan military consultancy in Poland.
After days of withholding battlefield developments, Ukraine said on Thursday that its forces had burst through Russian lines in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia, advancing up to 50 km (30 miles) and capturing dozens of settlements.
"It's an opportunistic attack that's really caught the Russian forces by surprise. It could actually become something quite significant if the Ukrainians are able to push on and take the (city) of Kupiansk," said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank.
Kupiansk is a rail hub on the way to the key Russian-held outpost of Izium from where Moscow has anchored some of its main operations in the partially-occupied eastern region of Donetsk whose full capture the Kremlin has prioritised. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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