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- Ukraine’s advance is the fastest advance in months
- Thousands of Russian troops face a potential encirclement
KIEV/HRAKOVE, Ukraine, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Ukrainian officials shared photos on Saturday showing troops raising the nation’s flag over the main railway city that has supplied Russian forces in northeastern Ukraine as a collapse in Russia’s front line threatened to turn into a rout. .
A Reuters reporter inside a vast area retaken in recent days by advancing Ukrainian forces saw Ukrainian police patrolling towns and ammunition crates piled in positions abandoned by fleeing Russian soldiers.
With the Ukrainians now in the city of Kupiansk, where the railway lines linking Russia with eastern Ukraine converge, the advance had penetrated all the way to Moscow’s main logistics route, potentially trapping thousands of Russian troops.
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Natalia Popova, adviser to the head of the Kharkiv regional council, shared photos on Facebook of troops holding a Ukrainian flag in front of Kupiansk town hall. At his feet was a Russian flag. “Kupiansk is Ukraine. Glory to the armed forces of Ukraine,” he wrote.
In Hrakove, one of dozens of towns recaptured, Reuters reporters saw burned vehicles bearing the “Z” symbol of the Russian invasion and piles of trash and ammunition in positions the Russians had abandoned in an obvious hurry.
“Hello everyone, we’re from Russia,” was spray-painted on a wall.
Three bodies were in white bags in a yard.
Regional police chief Volodymyr Tymoshenko said Ukrainian police had moved in the day before and checked the identities of local residents who had been living under Russian occupation since the second day of the invasion.
“The first task is to provide the help they need. The next task is to document the crimes committed by the Russian invaders in the territories they temporarily occupied.”
The capture of at least part of Kupiansk, if confirmed, could leave thousands of Russian soldiers trapped on the front lines and cut off from supplies. Reuters could not independently verify the situation in the city.
Ukraine has seized a large swath of territory in the east in recent days in its fastest advance since beating back a Russian assault on the capital Kyiv in March.
In a video address overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at least 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region had been liberated.
A house damaged by shelling, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, is seen in the village of Hrakove, recently liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine September 9, 2022. REUTERS/ Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy
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“Our military, intelligence units and security services are conducting active engagements in various operational areas. They are doing so successfully,” he said in a video address.
Moscow has acknowledged that its front line has been breached in Kharkiv, but has said it is adding additional troops to reinforce the area.
The head of the administration installed by Russia in the occupied areas of the province, Vitaliy Ganchev, has described the advance as a victory for Ukraine and has called for civilians to flee.
Ukrainian officials have released a barrage of images of troops sweeping through cities previously controlled by Russia and being embraced by local residents who have been under Russian military occupation for six months.
The Ukrainian advance threatens to encircle thousands of Russian troops in Izium, the main Russian stronghold and logistical base in the northeastern sector of the front.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a video posted on YouTube that the Russians in Izium were almost isolated.
Reuters could not immediately verify reports describing the situation in Izium. Ganchev, the regional officer stationed in Russia, included Izium among the cities where he said civilians should evacuate.
ADVANCED
Ukraine’s advance is by far the fastest in months, after a long period in which the war had become a relentless movement along entrenched front lines.
Ukraine’s attack in the east came as a surprise just a week after it announced the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake Russian-held territory hundreds of kilometers away on the opposite end of the front in Kherson, in the south.
Less information has been made public about that operation, but Kyiv has also claimed some successes there, cutting off supply routes to thousands of Russian troops isolated on the west bank of the Dnipro River.
“Now we see successes in Kherson, we see some successes in Kharkiv and that is very, very encouraging,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a news conference in Prague on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of people have died, millions have been driven from their homes and entire cities have been destroyed by Russian forces since the launch of what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to “disarm” Ukraine. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.
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Reports by Reuters journalists; written by Peter Graff; edited by Jason Neely
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