“Good news” for the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region and in the south of the country. Kyiv confirmed yesterday that his forces had recaptured up to 700 square kilometers in the northeastern Kharkiv region while his attacks on the Kherson oblast had decimated the Russian army’s resources.
“This week we have good news from the Kharkiv region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Wednesday in his usual late-night speech. “Now is not the time to name the settlements to which the Ukrainian flag is returning,” he said.
However, yesterday the Ukrainian military command did report that its troops had liberated 20 settlements in an area of ??700 square kilometers. “The Ukrainian armed forces, together with units of the National Guard and other security forces, have been carrying out operations since the beginning of the week and have penetrated the enemy defenses up to 50 kilometers,” reported the deputy head of the operational department of the General Staff. , Oleksy Gromov.
Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region “are likely exploiting the redeployment of Russian forces” to areas near the occupied city of Kherson in the south “to carry out an opportunistic but highly effective counteroffensive” in the province, according to the published report. yesterday by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. Ukrainian forces used “tactical surprise” to advance into Russian-held territory, the think tank maintains. Vitaly Ganchev, the pro-Russian mayor of the city of Kupiansk, told the AP agency on Thursday that authorities had begun evacuating women and children due to relentless Ukrainian bombardment.
In the Kherson region, the Ukrainian army is trying to recapture Russian-occupied territory and claimed to have recaptured an unspecified number of towns. The Ukrainian counteroffensive has forced Russian forces to reinforce the southern front, according to the report by the Institute for the Study of War, allowing Ukrainian forces to launch localized but highly effective counterattacks near Kharkiv, the second largest city. of the Ukraine, which was once again subjected to Russian bombardment.
Meanwhile, tension continues around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The towns of Nikopol and Marhanets, opposite the Zaporizhia plant, suffered overnight Russian shelling that damaged apartment buildings, a school, some industrial facilities and power lines, said Valentin Reznichenko, governor of Dnipropetrovsk province.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, warned from Vienna that “something very, very catastrophic could happen” at the plant and again urged Russia and Ukraine to establish a “nuclear protection and safety zone.” ” around it. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk urged residents of Russian-occupied areas near the plant to evacuate, saying Ukrainian authorities have contacted Moscow to establish humanitarian corridors without receiving a response.
