The Ukrainian army is advancing in the northeast, with some already calling it “the greatest day in modern history.” Putin’s army seems overwhelmed with the speed.
It is news Ukrainians have been waiting for months: Ukrainian military personnel are raising the blue and yellow flag in areas formerly occupied by Russian troops. This is what happened in the city of Balakliya in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian sources.
The strategically important city of Isyum was also taken, even the usually tight-lipped Defense Ministry in Moscow admitted. Albeit indirectly: according to it, Russian troops had withdrawn from the cities for “regrouping.”
“Boys and girls of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, today you are writing a new history of free Ukraine, we are proud,” wrote the head of the regional military administration, Oleg Synegubov. A new history that should have only found its beginning. “To be continued,” Synegubov wrote.
The past few days, with the launch of the surprise Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv oblast, now seem like the start of a domino game. On Saturday, several Russian-occupied towns fell one after another. In social networks, some Ukrainians are already celebrating one of the “greatest days in modern history “.
How dramatic the situation is for the Russian invaders is shown by a report from the Russian news agency Tass late Saturday afternoon. In it, the head of the Russian military administration in the Kharkiv region, Vitaly Gantshev, calls on residents to leave the oblast to save their lives. “Staying in one’s house now is dangerous.”
The Russian occupiers are apparently abandoning an entire region. Especially since Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine, with its cities of Krupyansk and Isyum, is strategically hugely important to Russian ambitions in the Donbass.
As if that were not enough, there are also reports of an imminent capture of the city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk oblast; a “people’s republic” was declared in the region just months ago. Ukrainian troops are reportedly already found in the city center. And the Russian army? According to reports, withdrawn without a fight. The next stop is said to be the neighboring city of Zyverodonetsk.
As is always the case in war, one should also be cautious about reports from the Ukrainian side. But one thing at least seems possible in the meantime: the Russian army could collapse in eastern Ukraine.
Surprise attack on the northeast
A Ukrainian surprise offensive has been underway in the northeast since Tuesday. Actually, one had been announced for Kherson in the south of the country. Military experts say Russia was surprised at a vulnerable section of its front line. Ukrainian troops advanced dozens of kilometers behind enemy lines within a few days.
President Volodymyr Selenskyy last spoke of more than 30 recaptured settlements in the Kharkiv region. That was before reports from Krupyansk, Isyum and Balakliya. On Saturday, Selenskyj called on Ukrainian bloggers not to rush to publish results from the front. In doing so, they made things more difficult for the army.
Apparently, Russian occupiers should not be warned. For example, from a surprise in Donetsk: it is reported that the Ukrainian army recaptured the Donetsk international airport. At the start of the war in the Donbass in 2014, pro-Russian separatists had seized the airport.
Ukrainian euphoria is correspondingly great. It should be noted that all statements in the social media are always part of the propaganda – which is part of modern warfare. The greater the success of the Ukrainian armed forces seems, the greater – so the hope – the fear and terror spread among Russian soldiers. At midday, for example, the Defense Ministry in Kiev tweeted a video of an entire battalion of Ukrainian soldiers apparently singing the national anthem in a forest to the sound of violins. “Before the battle,” it said.
A Ukrainian government adviser even quips on Twitter , Russia is calling for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. “They promised an offensive for Kherson and instead take Izyum! Not fair!” Garnished with the remark, “A joke, of course.”
