Russia admitted that it withdrew from Izyum after Ukraine announced the defeat of Russian troops in Kharkiv. However, Moscow claims that this is a “regrouping” of its soldiers.
“In order to achieve the declared objectives of the military special operation to liberate Donbas, it was decided to regroup Russian forces stationed near Balaklea and Izyum, to increase efforts in the Donetsk direction,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Ihor Konashenkov said on Saturday. TASS quotes.
According to him, over the last three days, an operation was carried out to reorganize and redistribute the Izyum-Balakliya grouping in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR).
A lightning counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces on Monday, which exceeded all expectations of experts, appears to have caused a catastrophic collapse of Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, which are either destroyed, captured in battle, or in a stampede retreat, leaving weapons and ammunition behind.
After information appeared on Friday evening that the Ukrainians were approaching Kupyansk, on Saturday morning it became known that this important logistical hub of Vladimir Putin’s army had already been captured by Kyiv troops.
A few hours later, information appeared that two other important cities further south, Izyum and Liman, had been abandoned by the Russians, fearing to be encircled.
The statement of the day on the counteroffensive came from Mark Hertling, a retired four-star general and former commander of US forces in Europe: “There is no doubt that (Ukraine) is executing a brilliant maneuver focused on field targets to ‘finish’ them off the Russians. But the Russians are helping them by doing very little to fight back.”
Read also:
- The catastrophic collapse of the Russian front near Kharkov: the invasion troops flee from Izyum and Liman / “We just fight as hard as we can”
- Counteroffensive in Kharkiv: the Ukrainians repelled about 2.5 thousand km. territory area / Russian troops are about to enter the “raisin cauldron” / What is happening in Kherson
- Why the conquest of Kupyansk is a great blow received by the Russian army
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Source: Hot News RU
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