Kyiv won new military victories on the Russian military, this time in the east, as the Kremlin says it wants to regain lost ground in the Ukrainian regions it claims it annexed despite a series of setbacks, AFP reported.

“Now it’s official. The liberation of Luhansk region has begun. Several settlements have already been liberated by the Russian army,” Serhii Gaidai said in a video posted on Telegram, without giving details.

On Tuesday, Ukraine already announced an offensive in northern Kherson Oblast (south), while almost all of Kharkiv Oblast (northeast) is now under Ukrainian control, paving the way to Luhansk, a separatist stronghold established by Moscow since 2014.

After a month of military failures and the announcement of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian reservists, Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a law on the official accession of four regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to the Russian Federation.

Putin with four leaders placed by Russia in the annexed regions Photo: Mykhailo Metzel / AFP / Profimediar

His press secretary Dmytro Peskov assured that these territories will remain Russian “forever” and that Moscow will regain the positions it has been losing wildly over the past month.

These territories “will be recaptured,” he assured at his daily conference.

Putin has previously vowed to do everything possible to defend the annexed territories, even if that means using nuclear weapons, a threat that has not stopped either a Ukrainian counteroffensive or Western arms shipments.

The Russian military on Tuesday vaguely acknowledged the withdrawal, publishing maps of the territories it controls. They show that Moscow ceded much of northern Kherson Oblast and left most of the eastern bank of the Oskil River, the last district of Kharkiv Oblast that it still controlled.

This is not very good news

However, a representative of the occupation authorities assured that the retreat of the Russians in the south is tactical and temporary.

“Regrouping at the front in the current conditions allows us to gather forces and strike” at Ukrainian troops, Kyrylo Stremousov told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Kirill Stremousov’s explanation did not convince even the guests on the set. Photo: video recording

A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi hailed the “significant” progress, saying that “this week alone, dozens of settlements” were liberated in four regions that Moscow allegedly annexed.

In the east, the withdrawal from Kharkiv allows Ukrainian forces to fight further east to the Luhansk region, for example to the city of Svatove.

While the Russian authorities have kept as little as possible about these failures, military correspondents in the pro-government Russian press insist on their scale. Many pro-Kremlin commentators have also criticized the Russian army.

“That’s how things go. There will be no good news in the near future. Neither on the Kherson front, nor from now on on the Luhansk front,” Oleksandr Kots “Komsomolska Pravda” commented on Tuesday from Svatovo in his Telegram channel.

Let’s go further

A Ukrainian paratrooper near Lyman, a strategic railway junction retaken late last week in eastern Donetsk region, admitted he and his comrades were “very exhausted” but determined to carry on.

“Let’s rest a little, and then we’ll go drive them out,” said the young soldier.

Oleksandr, 31, a paratrooper from the same unit, said the fighting was “very tough” but they had to “continue”.

Ukrainian tank in action Photo: Inna Varenytsia / AP / Profimedia

He said he did not fear the arrival of Russian reinforcements after the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian reservists on the orders of Vladimir Putin on September 21 to try to halt the spiral of defeat.

“Their mobilization… No matter how much, they don’t really want to fight with us,” says a young soldier.

Mobilization was chaotic, unfit men were shockingly drafted into the army, and crowds of Russians decided to flee the country.

Russian troops in Liman retreated at the last moment after the Ukrainian armed forces blocked all their supply routes one by one.

• Read also: VIDEO What remained after the chaotic retreat of the Russian army from Liman: dead soldiers, abandoned on the side of the road, personal belongings and equipment, a destroyed city

Diplomatic isolation of Russia continues

Diplomatically, US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday a new batch of US military equipment worth $625 million, including four new powerful Himars missile launchers highly valued by Ukrainians.

European Union member states agreed on Wednesday to a new series of sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals.

Russia on Wednesday asked to participate in the investigation of gas leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Sweden, which is leading the investigation, said.

Russia on Wednesday asked to take part in an investigation into the Nord Stream gas leak after Sweden, which is leading the investigation, blocked access to the area of ​​the alleged sabotage in the Baltic Sea.

Moscow has hinted that the United States has sabotaged these key energy pipelines for Europe, while the West suspects Russia.

• Read also: Russian state media, disappointed after Putin’s latest election campaign failures, spoke out / “Gloomy version for the Russian military…”