Good news for Kyiv and bad news for the Kremlin in the last few hours from the battlefields of southern and northern Ukraine. The American War Research Institute, citing its sources, said Ukrainian soldiers near Kharkov had captured more than 700 square kilometers of territory in several days of counterattacks.
Russian troops have withdrawn from Balakul, population 30,000, but gunfire can still be heard in parts of it, according to eyewitnesses. Therefore, the front moves further east. Ukrainians are close to Kupyansk and Izdum, which is a big problem for Russians. Izdum is a strategically important road and railway junction, and the occupying forces have a large base here, from which they send soldiers and equipment to Donbass.
Blocking Izzum, let alone losing it, would be a huge setback for the Russians. However, Russian artillery shelled Kharkov, his second-largest city in Ukraine, again at night. Two people died.
American newspaper Wall Street Journal He wrote that the current “double attack” is evidence of the sufficient strength and armament of the Ukrainian army. A second major counteroffensive is led by Kyiv forces in the southern part of the Kherson region, with the aim of cutting off Russian forces on the western bank of the Dnieper and recapturing the city of Kherson.
“The Ukrainians have captured many Russian troops in the south near Kherson, opening up the possibility for them to advance to Kharkov, where the Russians are now weakened,” wrote The Wall Street Journal. , referring to the Institute’s conclusions. for war research.
Washington Post reporter In a hospital in Odessa, I spoke with the wounded Ukrainian soldier Denis, who took part in the first days of the offensive in the south. He described the slow advance of his troops as the Russians put up a lot of resistance and were all firing at will. According to him, there are many wounded on the Ukrainian side. Another soldier, Ihor, said the Ukrainian had lost five of him to one Russian soldier.
The bad situation of the Russians and the pressure of Ukraine has also been acknowledged by Russian war bloggers on the Telegram social network. General Oleksiy Khoromov, Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said Ukrainian forces had advanced up to 50 kilometers into territory controlled by the Russians just days earlier, liberating two dozen villages in the Kharkov region.
Meanwhile, in occupied Melitopol, Ukrainian partisans blew up the headquarters of a pro-Kremlin political movement that was preparing a referendum on the region’s annexation to Russia. The Interfax office wrote that Vladimir Rogov, a member of the occupation administration of the Zaporozhye region, informed about this.
The explosion was also confirmed by the mayor Ivan Fedorov, who is loyal to Kyiv and now lives in Zaporizhia. The explosion in central Melitopol, a movement called We are together with Russia, occurred Wednesday night and was probably caused by a bomb planted in a parked car.
Report from Ukraine
Photo: Aktuálně.cz
Aktuálněcz reporters Martin Novák and Jakub Plíhal have traveled the Ukrainian Southern Front for half a year since the beginning of the Russian invasion, and have brought the photo gallery directly from the site. We have already published:
