The growing nervousness of Vladimir Putin responds to the phlegm of Ukrainian officials. Just after the announcement of the Russian president, Wednesday, September 21, to mobilize the reservists, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the cabinet of the Ukrainian president, reacted: “Partial mobilization, because [les Russes] understand that they do not have the potential to create new connections. » The adviser pointed out that the losses of the Russian army were already “huge”, before being ironic: “It’s good to be Russian under Putin. »
On Tuesday, September 20, kyiv had warned that the political escalation in Russia would not deflect one iota the Ukrainian military effort to retake the occupied territories. “The Russians have decided to respond asymmetrically to the Ukrainian counter-offensivea tweeted Mykhailo Podoliak, the adviser to the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president. They think that[organiser] an illegal “referendum” will prevent [les lance-roquettes longue portée américains] Himars and the armed forces to destroy the occupiers on our lands. Do you really want to waste the time necessary for your evacuation to attend a new show? So give it a try… It will be interesting…”
Lyman, a crucial railway junction
A week after the fiasco suffered by the Russian army in the Kharkiv region, the military initiative still remains in the hands of the Ukrainian forces. The progress is being made at a more moderate pace, but comparatively much faster than that of the laborious Russian offensive in the Donbass, which began in April. Several localities were reconquered Tuesday by the Ukrainian army in the north of the Donetsk region (Yarova and Sosnove). The assault began against Lyman (20,000 inhabitants), a crucial railway junction occupied by Russian forces since the end of May. Polish military expert Konrad Muzyka says Lyman was most likely released already, but there is no visual evidence to confirm this at this time. Further east, Ukrainian forces have regained a foothold in the Luhansk region by seizing Bilohorivka (confirmed by images) and are now only 10 kilometers from the city of Lyssychansk (100,000 inhabitants), which the Russian army had taken more than four months to seize.
Andrew Perpetua, an American blogger known for his very precise maps of the conflict, valued that the Russian army is going to regroup its elite units on the side of Lyssytchansk and deplete them on the side of Bakhmout. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group have already, according to him, been seen in Spirne, in an area where Russian forces are in a defensive position.
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