The Ukrainian offensive is progressing rapidly. The military administration installed by Russia in the occupied areas of the Kharkiv region admits that Ukrainian troops are clearly superior: they are eight times stronger than Russian units.
According to information from Kyiv, the advance of the Ukrainian army in the east of the country continues. “The liberation of Russian-occupied cities in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions continues,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in its situation report on Monday. A total of more than 20 cities were recaptured in the last 24 hours.
Russian troops were said to have left Welykyj Burluk and Dvorichna. Both places are in the north of the Kharkiv region. Under pressure from Ukrainian counter-offensives, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the withdrawal of its own troops from the Kharkiv region over the weekend, more than six months after the start of the war. The withdrawal was officially justified with a strategic “regrouping” of the units.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had already announced in the evening that he would seize the strategically important city of Izyum, which had already been contested. Videos of Ukrainian soldiers flying the country’s flag emerged from the small town 140 kilometers southeast of Kharkiv.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian troops also left the small town of Svatove in the Luhansk region. According to the situation report, only separatist militias are still deployed there. This information cannot be independently verified.
“Ukrainian troops eight times stronger”
The military administration installed by Russia in the occupied areas of the Kharkiv region recognizes that Ukrainian troops have a clear superiority in their counter-offensive. They are eight times stronger than Russian units and the pro-Russian forces allied to them, says Vitaly Gantchev, head of government, on state television channel Rossiya-24. Ukrainian forces seized Russian-occupied settlements in the northern Kharkiv region and invaded the state’s border with Russia. About 5,000 civilians have been put to safety in Russia, he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine reported that 80% of electricity and water supplies were restored in the Kharkiv region in the morning. The region was hit by widespread outages on Sunday night.
(APA/dpa/Portal)