The blow struck with staggering results. Since September 6, the Ukrainian army has launched in the Kharkiv sector, in northeastern Ukraine, its most effective counter-offensive since the start of the invasion, sinking up to 70 km in the Russian system. “Since the beginning of September, more than 3,000 km2 have returned to Ukrainian control”, announced Sunday, September 11 Valeri Zaloujny, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian army.
In a few days, dozens of localities were taken over by kyiv in the Kharkiv region. Among them, the city of Kupiansk, 27,000 inhabitants, a railway and logistics hub, of great importance for supplying Russian troops in north-eastern Ukraine. “Fighting continues around the towns of Izioum and Liman”, commented Sunday, September 11 Sergei Gaïdaï, head of the administration of the Luhansk region, visibly confident in the success of the Ukrainian forces and the « grandes perspectives » progress that may result.
Two-pronged offensives
If this attack managed to take the Russians by surprise, it was largely because their attention was elsewhere. Since August 29, Ukraine has been engaged in a major counter-offensive in the southern region of Kherson to drive Russian soldiers from the western bank of the Dnieper. Announced a long time ago by the kyiv authorities, it had led Russia to redeploy units there from other sections of the front, thus offering the Ukrainian troops stationed near Kharkiv the possibility of rushing into a weakly defended sector.
The counter-offensive on Kherson is however far from being only a diversion. The Russians find themselves in a precarious situation there: Ukraine has prepared for this operation by bombarding Russian command centers, logistics nodes and ammunition stocks in the Kherson region since the end of July, taking advantage of the formidable precision of US Himars multiple rocket launchers, delivered during the summer. Above all, these strikes made it possible to put the two bridges over the great Dnieper River out of service, breaking an essential logistical route for the thousands of Russian soldiers posted on the western bank.
“The Russians will not be able to rely solely on floating bridges constantly under threat of fire to supply their troops north of the river», explain to The cross military analyst Konrad Muzyka. The fight will not be easy for all that. Expecting an offensive, the Russians fortified their positions in the area. According to several analysts, the Ukrainian army would therefore rely more on the fact that the Russian positions are becoming more and more untenable, pushing them in the medium term to retreat south of the river.
A turning point in the conflict
This resumption of the initiative by kyiv nevertheless marks a turning point, after a painful start to the summer for the Ukrainian army, which suffered heavy human losses defending the Donbass, under crushing artillery fire. Russian. Deliveries of Western arms and ammunition in the following months had, however, enabled Ukraine to rebalance the balance of power, and to prepare these counter-offensives.
At a time when Western public opinion is worried about the economic consequences of the conflict, these successes on the Kharkiv and Kherson fronts will be useful to kyiv in convincing Western leaders to maintain their military support in the long term. Saluting the “manifest success” Western efforts on the battlefield, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on 8 September pledged new military aid of 675 million euros, to which is added 2.2 billion euros in the form of loans and donations to countries in the area.
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The reconstruction of Ukraine already estimated at 349 billion dollars
349 billion dollars (350 billion euros) : this is the amount estimated by the World Bank, the European Commission and the Ukrainian government for the reconstruction of Ukraine, an amount that would only remain at this level… if the war stopped immediately! This represents 1.5 times the GDP recorded in 2021 by Ukraine.
$97 billion: it is the part of the amount which results solely from the destruction caused by the fighting.
$105 billion should be used in the next three years for the most urgent needs.
$39 billion: it is the international aid that has already been raised between the G7 countries and the European Union (9 billion).