প্রকাশ: 11/09/2022
Moscow abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on
Saturday, in a sudden collapse of one of the war's principal front lines after
Ukrainian forces made a rapid advance.
The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Moscow's
worst defeat since its troops were forced back from the capital Kyiv in March.
Ukraine hailed it as a turning point in the 6-month-old war, with thousands of
Russian soldiers leaving behind ammunition stockpiles and equipment as they
fled.
Russian forces used Izium as the logistics base for one of
their main campaigns - a months-long assault from the north on the adjacent
Donbas region comprised of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The state-run TASS news agency quoted Russia's defence
ministry as saying it had ordered troops to leave the vicinity and reinforce
operations elsewhere in Donetsk.
The head of Russia's administration in Kharkiv told
residents to evacuate the province and flee to Russia to "save
lives," TASS reported. Witnesses described traffic jams of cars with
people leaving Russian-held territory.
If the reported gains are held, it would be a serious blow
for Russia, which Western intelligence services say has suffered huge
casualties. It would also be a big boost for Ukraine, which is keen to show
Western nations supplying it with weapons it deserves their continued support.
There is pressure on Kyiv to demonstrate progress before
winter sets in, amid threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt all
energy shipments to Europe if Brussels goes ahead with a proposal to cap the
price of Russian oil exports.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in Kyiv that
Ukrainian forces had demonstrated they were capable of defeating the Russian
army with the weapons given to them.
"And so I reiterate: the more weapons we receive, the
faster we will win, and the faster this war will end," he said.
In his nightly video address on Saturday, President
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine's armed forces had recovered around 2,000
square kilometres (770 square miles) of territory since its counter-offensive
was launched earlier this month.
"The Russian army is claiming the title of fastest army
in the world ... keep running!" Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff,
wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian officials stopped short of confirming they had
recaptured Izium, but Yermak earlier posted a photo of troops on its outskirts
and tweeted an emoji of grapes. The city's name means "raisin."
The Russian withdrawal announcement came hours after
Ukrainian troops captured the city of Kupiansk farther north, the sole railway
hub supplying Russia's entire front line across northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian
officials posted photos early on Saturday of their troops raising the country's
blue-and-yellow flag in front of Kupiansk's city hall.
That left thousands of Russian troops abruptly cut off from
supplies along a front that has seen some of the most intense battles of the
war.
Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian forces in eastern
Ukraine, called the Russian pullback "a major defeat" in remarks on
Telegram.
MECHANISED ASSAULT
Ukraine has for weeks been talking up a big counteroffensive
in the south, which also is under way though details are sparse.
Russia still occupies extensive territory in the Donbas and
in the south near the Crimean Peninsula it seized in 2014.
Days ago, Kyiv's forces burst through the front line in the
northeast and have since recaptured dozens of towns and villages in a swift
mechanised assault, surging forward dozens of kilometres (miles) a day.
Ukraine's deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, sounded a
cautionary note, urging people not to report prematurely that towns have been
"taken" just because Ukrainian troops were sighted. Troops entered
Balakliia a few days ago, she said, but it was only on Saturday that Ukraine
established control in the city.
In Hrakove, one of dozens of villages recaptured in the
Ukrainian advance, Reuters saw burnt-out vehicles bearing the "Z"
symbol of Russia's invasion. Boxes of ammunition were scattered along with
rubbish at positions the Russians had abandoned in evident haste.
"Hello everyone, we are from Russia," was
spray-painted on a wall. Three bodies lay in white body bags in a yard.
The regional chief of police, Volodymyr Tymoshenko, said
Ukrainian police moved in the previous day, and checked the identities of local
residents who had lived under Russian occupation since the invasion's second
day.
"The first function is to provide help that they need.
The next job is to document the crimes committed by Russian invaders on the
territories which they temporarily occupied," he said.
'FIGHTING IS GETTING CLOSER'
A witness in Valuyki, a town in Russia's Belgorod region
near the border with Ukraine, told Reuters she saw families from Kupiansk
eating and sleeping in their cars along roads.
"I was at the market today and saw a lot of people from
Kupiansk. They say half of the city was taken by the Ukrainian army and Russia
is retreating ... the fighting is getting closer," the witness said.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said officials were
giving food and medical aid to people queuing at a crossing into Russia.
Senator Andrey Turchak, from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, reported more
than 400 vehicles at the frontier.
Russian rocket fire hit Kharkiv city on Saturday evening,
killing at least one person and damaging several homes, part of a surge in
shelling since Kyiv's counter-offensive, Ukrainian officials said.
"The advance is enormous. There are sporadic battles,
but mostly the occupiers are fleeing," Luhansk regional governor Serhiy
Gaidai told Ukrainian television on Saturday.
- Reuters
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