KHARKIV: Russia said it was pulling back colors from the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine as Kyiv blazoned massive territorial earnings in its lightning counter-offensive.
A Moscow- backed separatist leader in the east meanwhile said Russian forces were fighting “delicate” battles against Kyiv’s colors in several corridors of the eastern Donetsk region.
A Ukrainian functionary also said Kyiv’s colors were closing in on the eastern megacity of Lysychansk, captured by Russian colors after fierce ordnance battles in July.
Moscow’s advertisement late on Saturday of the withdrawal alongside Kyiv’s claim to have entered the city of Kupiansk is the most significant shift in battleground dynamics after months of fighting in eastern Ukraine that has been dominated by Moscow.
“A decision was made to regroup Russian colors posted in the Balakliya and Izyum regions to bolster sweats along the Donetsk front,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
News of the drawdown came just after Ukrainian special forces published images on social media showing disguise-clad officers with automatic munitions “in Kupiansk”, a city of about 27,000 people.
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Ukrainian colors had also delivered Vasylenkovo and Artemivka in the Kharkiv region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Saturday.
Independently speaking to the periodic Yalta European Strategy forum, Zelensky said Russia “is doing everything to break the resistance of Ukraine, Europe, and the world during the 90 days of this(coming) downtime”, counting on an eventual decaying of Western support for Kyiv due to rising energy prices and heating problems.“ It’s their final argument, ” he said.
There was no sanctioned evidence that Kyiv’s colors had also routed Russian forces from Izyum– an important staging ground for Moscow’s war trouble with a population of around 45,000 people before the irruption.
But images submerging social media appeared to show Ukrainian forces within the megacity and Russian spectators of the conflict said there were original reports Moscow’s army had formerly withdrawn.
“Ukrainian colors are advancing in eastern Ukraine, liberating further metropolises and townlets. Their courage coupled with Western military support brings astonishing results,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko.
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