Ukraine appears to recapture key cities of Izyum and Kupiansk
Ukraine appears to have recaptured the key cities of Izyum and Kupiansk.
The cities lie southeast of Kharkiv city in the Kharkiv region, where Ukrainian forces have launched a major counter-offensive in recent days. Analysts say Kupiansk in particular is an important logistical hub for Russian forces in the east of Ukraine.
A number of pro-Russian Telegram channels have said Ukrainian forces now control half of Kupiansk, BBC Russia reports, while Ukrainian sources have told the outlet that Kupiansk has been “completely liberated”.
BBC Russia also reports that pro-Russian channels have said Russian troops have left Izyum. Other channels reportedly said Ukrainian troops were already in the city’s centre.
Late on Thursday, US-based thinktank The Institute for the Study of War said it expected Kupiansk to fall within 72 hours, and that its recapture would “severely degrade” Russia’s ground lines of communication to Izyum.
An intelligence update published by the UK ministry of defence at 6am this morning said that Russian forces around Izyum were “increasingly isolated” and that Ukrainian units were “threatening” Kupiansk.
Claims that the cities have been recaptured have also been shared online by multiple analysts and journalists covering the war in Ukraine. The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the claims.
I imagine that the Putin regime is about to borrow and dust off the old Nazi propaganda term of a “strategic and orderly retreat” to explain why enemy forces are getting closer to Russia’s borders.
The Russian ministry of defence has confirmed the retreat of Russian forces from both Izyum and Balakliya.
In a statement published by state media outlet RIA Novosti, the ministry claimed a decision had been made to “regroup the Russian troops stationed in the Balakliya and Izyum regions” and “step up efforts in Donetsk” so as to “achieve the stated goals of the special military operation” and “liberate” the Donbass.
It also claimed that a number of “distraction and demonstration events” had been staged in order to conceal the “real actions of the troops” and allow the withdrawal.
These past two weeks, and the past couple of days in particular, have been wild. Haven’t heard so many good news from Ukraine since the Russians were beaten away from Kyiv in March.
Though there’s an important difference between then and now. It was already evident since the earliest days of the war that the Russian offensive towards Kyiv was more incompetent and broken compared to the other advances, and even as the northern front collapsed it was clear that Ukraine still had a big problem in the south where Russia was advancing and consolidating.
Now, on the other hand, it doesn’t look like Russia is doing well anywhere. While the catastrophic collapse of Russian lines is (so far) limited to the front near Kharkiv, there is no sense that this frontline was somehow exceptional or that Russia still has untapped potential elsewhere.
It really feels like this is the pivotal moment that marks the beginning of the end for this war. It may not necessarily be quick, but there is light at the end of the tunnel in the direction we’re headed now.
“The rhetoric that you and your subordinates use has been riddled with intolerance and aggression for a long time, which in the end effectively threw our country back into the Cold War era. Russia has again begun to be feared and hated, we are once again threatening the whole world with nuclear weapons,”
We ask you to relieve yourself of your post due to the fact that your views and your governance model are hopelessly outdated and hinder the development of Russia and its human potential
So now we just hope Putin reads it and does the right thing.
All kidding aside, it is good to see leaders at some levels beginning to feel brave enough to bring up the
need for Putin to go.
‘Do you still think you can scare us?’ Zelenskiy tells Russia
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has delivered a fierce response to Russian attacks on the Kharkiv region.
In a nightly message on Telegram, the Ukrainian president said that although the Kremlin was trying to deprive his people of “gas, light, water and food”, it would not succeed in defeating them.
“Do you still think that you can scare us, break us, make us make concessions?” he asks in a stirring that is worth posting in full:
Even through the impenetrable darkness, Ukraine and the civilized world clearly see these terrorist acts.
Deliberate and cynical missile strikes on civilian critical infrastructure. No military facilities. Kharkiv and Donetsk regions were cut off. In Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy there are partial problems with power supply.
Do you still think that we are “one people”?
Do you still think that you can scare us, break us, make us make concessions?
You really did not understand anything?
Don’t understand who we are? What are we for? What are we talking about?
Lip reading:
Without gas or without you? without you
Without light or without you? without you
Without water or without you? without you
Without food or without you? without you
Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as scary and deadly for us as your “friendship and brotherhood”.
But history will put everything in its place. And we will be with gas, light, water and food… and WITHOUT you!
