Ukraine’s lightning counter-offensive in the north-east of the country has inflicted an extraordinary defeat on Moscow, prompting the Russian army to pull back thousands of troops after suffering a series of battlefield defeats.
In a day of momentous developments, Ukrainian forces confirmed the liberation of the crucial rail hub of Kupiansk and shortly after seized Izium, the major base for Moscow’s forces in the Kharkiv region.
Within hours of Izium’s fall, Russia’s defence ministry admitted that it was pulling back its forces from the region.
In developments unforeseeable just a few days ago, Russian officials said troops would be moved from the Balakliia and Izium areas to help its operation in Donbas, mirroring the justification the Kremlin gave for withdrawing its forces from the Kyiv region soon after the start of the seven-month war.
In a video address on Saturday the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukrainian forces had liberated about 2,000 sq km (700 square miles) of territory since the counter-offensive against Russia started earlier this month.
“The Russian army these days is demonstrating its best ability – to show its back,” he said.
Vitaly Ganchev, the head of the Russia-backed administration in the Kharkiv region, said on state television that several villages had come under the control of Ukrainian armed formation and said his administration was trying to “evacuate” civilians from cities including Izium, Russia’s main logistics base in the province, where the British officials described Russian forces as “increasingly isolated”.
A resident of Izium, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Guardian that the Ukrainian troops had entered the city. Before that, “Russian occupying forces were rapidly withdrawing, leaving ammunition and equipment behind.”
Retaking Izium is perhaps Ukraine’s most significant success in pushing back the Russians since the beginning of the invasion.
Izium has for centuries been regarded as the gateway to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and, from there, to the Black Sea. The Russians called the area around it Izium passage.
Its strategic position has meant Izium has become a fierce battleground in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow used it as a launching point for its assault against Ukrainian forces in Donbas. It fell fully to Russian forces on 1 April, trapping thousands of civilians in a city where as many as 80% of its residential buildings have been destroyed.
“We have managed to cut off the supply lines for the Russian formations in control of the Izium area,” said Serhiy Kuzan, a military expert at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, who has direct knowledge of events in Kharkiv.
Kuzan said the Russian formations in charge of the south-east area of Kharkiv, labelled the Izium area by military experts, were professional Russian soldiers, not mercenaries or conscripts from Russian-occupied Donbas.
“Ukrainian troops are advancing in eastern Ukraine, liberating more cities and villages. Their courage coupled with western military support brings astonishing results,” foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on social media.
Ukrainian officials shared photos on Saturday showing troops raising the nation’s flag over Kupiansk, where rail lines linking Russia to eastern Ukraine converge and which, in the last months, has supplied Russian forces in north-eastern Ukraine.
“Kupiansk is Ukraine. Glory to the armed forces of Ukraine,” said Natalia Popova, adviser to the head of the Kharkiv regional council.
The capture of Kupiansk potentially leaves thousands of Russian soldiers trapped at the frontline and cut off from supplies.
“The reason why Kupiansk is so important is because it’s the major railway junction supplying the Izium formations,” said Kuzan. “We saw Russian troops fleeing en masse yesterday. They are now trying to strengthen their positions by dropping reserves in by plane but this is very impractical as the reserves are not prepared,” said Kuzan.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said Ukraine’s counter-offensive has taken Russian forces by surprise, adding that Kyiv’s forces had advanced 50km (31 miles) along a narrow frontline and retaken or surrounded several towns.
“With Ukrainian operations also continuing in Kherson, the Russian defensive front is under pressure on both its northern and southern flanks,” reads the statement.
“We are actually surprised by how poorly the Russians have retreated,” said Kuzan. “Retreat is part of the art of war. When we retreated, we made sure they suffered losses as they advanced and we did so to ensure that they only advanced 1, 2, 3km.
“They were so confident that they didn’t prepare their defences,” said Kuzan. “This has shown that the only advantage they have is in the number of artillery pieces and heavy equipment. So all we need is the same amount.”
On Saturday, Russia’s defence ministry spokesperson, Igor Konashenkov, said that Moscow was pulling back forces from Balakliia and Izium, and that they will regroup in the Donetsk region.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russia is also sending 1,300 Chechen fighters to the southern Kherson region.
It comes as western intelligence suggests that Russian forces in Kherson are coming under sustained pressure from Ukrainian attacks.
For weeks, Ukrainian officials had telegraphed plans for a planned counterattack in the southern Kherson region, but instead the main focus of this week’s counterattack has been Kharkiv in the north-east, taking everyone, including apparently the Russians, by surprise.
Moscow responded by firing rockets into the centre of the city, according to local officials, who said that at least 10 people, including three children, were wounded in an attack that Zelenskiy’s chief of staff condemned as revenge for Ukrainian success on the battlefield.
Despite the gains made by Ukraine’s armed forces, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the war was entering a critical period and he urged Ukraine’s western backers to keep up their support through what could be a difficult winter.
Russian rocket fire hit Kharkiv city on Saturday evening, killing at least one person and damaging several homes, part of a surge in shelling since Kyiv’s counter-offensive, Ukrainian officials said.
Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
