Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed today (Friday) that the forces “liberated dozens of settlements” and regained more than 1,000 square kilometers of territory in the Kharkiv region in the east as well as Kherson in the south over the past week. Zelensky published a video of Ukrainian soldiers announcing that they had captured the town of Alkaliya in the east The country, south of Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine.
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The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 km along that front, after an attack surprised the Russians. The Ukrainian General Staff said earlier that retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded and damaged military equipment near Kharkiv. “Thanks to skillful and coordinated operations, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, supported by The local population advanced almost 50 km in three days,” it was reported.
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The surprising Ukrainian breakthrough in the east came a week after Kiev announced the start of a counteroffensive hundreds of kilometers away at the other end of the front line, in the southern Kherson province. Such rapid progress has been almost unheard of since Russia abandoned its assault on Kyiv in March, spending the war mostly in a relentless offensive along the front lines.
Western military analysts said the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway that Moscow has relied on to maintain its power in eastern Ukraine, and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off.
The Kremlin declined to comment, but Russian state television aired a story supporting claims that Kyiv had achieved a “substantial victory” in Kharkiv, and Russia’s Defense Ministry released a video of its troops being sent to reinforce the area. “The very breach of our defenses is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces,” Russian state television broadcast.
The war in Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers walking next to a Russian tank (Photo: Reuters)Ukraine has not allowed independent journalists into the area to verify the extent of its advance, but Ukrainian news websites showed images of soldiers cheering from armored vehicles as they roared past street signs bearing the names of cities formerly under Russian control. “We’re seeing success in Kherson now, we’re seeing some success in Kharkiv, so that’s very, very encouraging,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a press conference with his Czech counterpart in Prague.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were within 15 kilometers of Kopyansk, which is close to the main railway lines that Moscow relied on to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east. Ukrainian officials say Russia has moved thousands of troops south to respond, leaving other parts of the front line exposed. “We found a weak point where the enemy was not ready,” presidential adviser Oleksiy Arstovich said in a video posted on YouTube.