Status: 09/10/2022 5:07 p.m
Russia has announced the deployment of troops in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian side had previously reported successful recaptures in the area.
In view of the Ukrainian recaptures in the Kharkiv region, Russia declares a withdrawal of its troops from the cities of Balakliya and Izyum. The Russian Defense Ministry speaks of a “regrouping”. A ministry spokesman, quoted by the TASS news agency, describes the withdrawal as a further step in what Russia has called the “liberation” of Ukraine’s Donbass region.
Shaded in white: advance of the Russian army. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/09/09/2022
Ukraine recaptures important city
The Ukrainian army had previously reported further successes in its counter-offensive against the Russian occupiers. The strategically important city of Kupyansk near Kharkiv has been recaptured, according to the Ukrainian domestic intelligence service SBU. Ukrainian special forces published pictures in online networks that are said to show officers in the city of 27,000. Kupyansk “has always been and always will be Ukrainian,” they wrote. The Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said Ukrainian units were advancing in eastern Ukraine and liberating “more towns and villages.”
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Russia called on residents to flee
On Friday evening, Vitaly Gantchev, the Russian-appointed administrator of the Kharkiv region, called on residents of embattled towns to flee: “In the current situation, I simply cannot allow civilians to die, so I strongly recommend that you leave the war zone.”
The villages, which are now being shelled by the armed units of Ukraine, will soon be liberated, Ganchev said. “But until then, the most important thing is to save the lives and health of our people.” The Russian border service is prepared for refugees from the Kharkiv region.
Kupyansk was to become a Russian base
In July, the Russian state news agency Tass reported that pro-Russian authorities wanted to set up their administration for the occupied parts of the Kharkiv region in Kupyansk. Because of the direct rail connection to Russia, the city is important as a transport hub for supplying the entire Russian military association around Izyum in the south-west.
Ukrainian soldiers posed for a photo in Kupkansk.
Image: via REUTERS
Britain: Russian army surprised
According to British information, the Ukrainian troops in the north-east of the country took the Russian forces by surprise with their counter-offensive. The Ukrainian spearheads advanced up to 50 kilometers into previously Russian-occupied territory on a narrow front, the Defense Ministry said, citing secret services. Only a few Russian troops were gathered in the area, it said. “The Russian forces were apparently taken by surprise.”
The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also reported on Ukrainian territory gains. Ukrainian troops would have conquered about 2500 square kilometers. The badly organized Russians were surprised by the rapid advance.
With information from Helge Rosenkranz, WDR