UKRAINE: According to a regional official placed by Russia, Ukrainian forces have advanced “extremely sharply and rapidly” into an increasing area of previously Russian-held terrain in the east, marking a potential turning point in the war.
Russia finally acknowledged, after remaining silent for a day, that a portion of its lines had collapsed southeast of Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.
The leader of the Russian-supported administration in the Kharkiv region, Vitaly Ganchev, said on state television that “the enemy is being delayed as much as possible, but some settlements have already come under the control of Ukrainian armed units.”
Combat was still going on in the eastern Donbas region and the south, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who later said that Kyiv’s forces had liberated more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region.
He stated in a video speech that “our army, intelligence units, and the security services are carrying out active combat in numerous operational locations, and they are doing so successfully.”
The primary stronghold and supply hub for Russia in the province, Izium, is one of the cities from which Ganchev claimed his administration was attempting to evacuate residents.
In a video uploaded to YouTube, Oleksiy Arestovych, a Zelenskiy advisor, claimed in a video that the Russian defenders in Izium were essentially alone. Arestovych claimed that reports from the front line indicated that hundreds of Russians had already been killed and several hundred more had been captured.
Since it invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what Moscow terms a “special military operation” to “disarm” Ukraine, Russia has seized control of around a fifth of the country. The administration in Kyiv and its friends in the West accuse Russia of waging an imperial-style war of invasion.
Lines of supply
To demonstrate how quickly reinforcements were arriving to defend the area, the Russian defence ministry broadcast footage of military trucks speeding down a highway.
According to western military analysts, the assault might cut off Moscow’s supply routes, which it has used to maintain its force in eastern Ukraine, and could potentially encircle thousands of Russian troops.
Since Russia abandoned its attack on Kyiv in March, when the war essentially turned into a grind along entrenched front lines, such swift advances have largely been unheard of.
At a news conference in Prague, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “We are now seeing results in Kherson and some success in Kharkiv, and that is very, very positive.”
The Russian general staff was reportedly making an effort to evacuate injured soldiers and damaged military equipment near Kharkiv as they withdrew early on Friday, according to the Ukrainian general staff.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions of people have been forced from their homes, and the Russian military has completely destroyed entire cities. Russia denies that it targets people on purpose.
Governor Oleh Synehubov reported that a Russian rocket attack on Kharkiv’s centre, which has frequently been bombarded, resulted in 10 injuries, including three children.
A week after Kyiv declared the beginning of a long-anticipated counter-offensive hundreds of kilometres away at the other end of the front line, in the southern region of Kherson, the Ukrainians made a breakthrough in the east.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russia exposed other areas of the front line when it sent thousands of troops south to counter the Kherson offensive.
According to Kherson authorities designated by Russia, some Ukrainian soldiers were detained, and some Polish tanks they were using were destroyed.
To encircle hundreds of Russian soldiers on the western bank of the broad Dnipro River, Ukraine has begun attacking Russian rear positions in the south with modern, Western-supplied artillery and rockets.
The power infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, where employees of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station live, was devastated by shelling on Friday, according to a nuclear watchdog, posing an increasing threat to the plant.
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