Ukraine troops continued their rapid progress in the Kharkiv region on Sunday, exploiting the collapse of the extraordinary Russian defense and raised questions about how far they could step.
Reports that have not been confirmed last night suggested that Kyiv’s troops had taken Velykyi Burluk, a city about 90 km (56 miles) east of Kharkiv and not far from the Russian-Ukraine border. The city of Chkalovske was also reclaimed, and all eyes were in Izyum which is located strategically.
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Sunday published a map showing many of the country’s troops from the Kharkiv region, without further commenting.
We began to advance not only to the south and east in the Kharkiv area but also to the north. 50 kilometers were abandoned until we reached the country’s border,” Top Ukraine Commander Valery Zaluzhnyi said in a telegram post.
Zaluzhnyi said his troops had returned 3,000 square km (1,158 square miles) from the lost area to Ukraine’s control since early September. Estimated land that has been registered has increased steadily in the last few days.
This progress represented Ukraine’s biggest victory since they pushed Russian troops away from Kyiv Capitol in March, and the last few days have been mentioned among the most important of the current invasion of 200 days.
Ukraine troops have clearly shown their ability to carry out major -opa -affecity and changed the course of conflict, ahead of the difficult winter for European allies who supported the Kyiv war efforts with weapons and cash.
But progress also presents the commander and leader of Ukraine with some difficult decisions, because they decided when to stop their progress.
When you pursue damaged enemies, there is always a significant risk that you become too much and expose your wings,” said Jack Watling, a senior researcher for the Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Watling described the commander of Ukraine in the Kharkiv Theater as a heart -obey and could not be carried away by the atmosphere, which means offensive is likely to slow down to consolidate, and leave efforts to fully sweep Russian troops outside the region until 2023.
The speed of defeat is likely to shock the Ukrainians themselves, who aim to decide the critical supply path to Russian troops in Izyum, the main launch point for Russian attacks in the East Donbas region. On the contrary, Russian troops escaped.
Russian morals are very low and when morals are low, surprise can cause disintegration,” Watling said. Russia fainted and withdraws altogether, and I am sure Ukraine doesn’t expect that.”
The Institute of War Studies, a Think Tank based in the US, said Ukraine was likely to capture Izyum the next day or two “if they haven’t done so.” Ukraine troops have indeed taken Izyum, Mykyta Karakay, a national guard soldier and former Deputy Council Izyum, said on national television. Claims cannot be verified immediately.
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Saturday confirmed the withdrawal of troops from the region, but gave this step as part of a plan to reuse troops further to the east to “achieve goals that were declared to free Donbas.”
On Sunday, the ministry did not mention the retreat in a regular television briefing, but showed a map that showed that Moscow troops had withdrawn from most of the new areas they were holding in the Kharkiv region.
In Kyiv, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday held a series of latest meetings with top military commanders, intelligence officials, cabinet officers and advisors.
Outwardly, Kremlin does not show a panic sign. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday guarded his announced schedule, including leading the opening of a new boxing gym and giant Ferris wheel in Taman Moscow. The authorities in Moscow held a large fireworks show on Saturday night to mark the warning of the establishment of the city.
On Sunday, Putin spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, who urged Russia to attract weapons from around the Zaporizhhia nuclear power plant, around 350 kilometers southwest of Kharkiv. The couple spoke after the last operating unit in the facility occupied by Russia closed safely-turning back, for now, the level of “tile” danger quoted on Friday by the UN atomic agent.
We must witness the unexpected reaction from Putin,” said Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army General Tweet about military strategy under the grip of @warinthefuture. “He (unlike some of his senior military officers) did not show signs of believing that the invasion was in trouble.”
Russian military bloggers and others are usually loyal to Kremlin have begun to voice criticism of how Putin War – which was designed to flood Ukraine in a few days or weeks, and now on the 1200th day – has been executed.
Daniil Bezononov, the first Deputy Minister of Information for the People’s Republic of Donetsk supported by Moscow in Donbas, said on Saturday that the Russian military had left Izyum and several other regions in Kharkiv.
Of course, this is the result of high command errors,” he said in his telegram channel.
Russia’s suggestion that his retreat has also been planned to raise eyebrows from supporters of the Kremlin setung.
Chechen Strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who sent thousands of fighters in the future, criticized Russian authority for failing to prepare the public for the reversal who suddenly. “The mistake was made,” he said in a late night telegram post that was blabbering on Saturday.
“If today or tomorrow changes are not made on a special military operation strategy, I will be forced to contact the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and State Leadership and explain the real situation on the ground,” Kadyrov said.
Mykola Bielieskov, a researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv, said the Ukraine military would weigh the next step carefully.
We still need to consolidate profits and to clean up settlements, to free Izyum, ensure the safety of wings from the north, from Russia in Belgorod,” Bielieskov said. “So I will say it is better to be conservative and consolidate profits, because it goes further there is a risk.”
The collapse of Russia in the north partly because the troops have been slandered to strengthen Russia’s position of counterattacks in the Kherson region, said Bielieskov.
Russia has no ordinary defense in depth,” Bielieskov said. “So as soon as the first row broke there was a vacancy.”
Almost as important as the territory regained – and relief for ukrainian forces in the donbas city of slovyansk that had threatened from zyum – is that the signal is by the last few days of rapid reversals to russian troops and ukraine’s bacraine and Europe.
Faced with a rotating energy price and the possibility of recession which is partly caused by sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion, evidence of the ability of Ukraine to restore the region can be proven to be important for its sustainable support.
Remember that the consensus in the summer is that there will be a deadlock and the line will be improved because Ukraine will not
We still need surface missiles to the air, to protect from the helicopter maneuvers of attacks and fighter aircraft; we still need heavy artillery, because they have more; we still need armor and heavy mobility,” he said. “We managed to do it despite the deficit, but we have a deficit.
