Ukrainian soldiers have pierced Russian fronts in a lightning maneuver and appear to be creating a noose around Russian forces in the highly strategic city of Izyum, which is of critical logistical importance to Moscow’s operations in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Seemingly out of the blue, Russia insists it is sending reinforcements and “evacuating” civilians ahead of the Ukrainian advance. As they push deeper into Russian-held territory, Ukrainian soldiers are posting videos of their reception in towns and villages along their route of discovery. Footage captured in the town of Balakliia, which had a pre-war population of around 28,000, shows a group of women cheering on incoming Ukrainian soldiers in the town’s central square. A Ukrainian soldier is also seen in the background, wiping his feet on what looks like the flag of one of the pro-Russian separatist groups. In another video, a group of women hug several Ukrainian soldiers at the entrance to an apartment building in Balaklia, shedding tears of joy and repeating “Thank you, boys!” One of the women even offers pancakes to her liberators. Balakliya was under Russian occupation for 6 months. This is what true liberation looks like. I listen to the locals on the video and think about how many unknown war crimes from this entire period we will find there. pic.twitter.com/83dOd4P57W — Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) September 8, 2022 “It is difficult for us, but we are pressing forward,” said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, in a low-key comment on those videos. The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region is Kiev’s biggest advance since Russian troops were forced to withdraw from Kyiv and northern Ukraine in early March. Since then, Russia has focused its military offensive on Ukraine’s industrial region of Donbass. The move to impose a chokehold around Izyum, a town with a pre-war population of 46,000, has rekindled memories of a major encounter fought in almost the same area in World War II. It was here that the Germans struck a major blow with Operation Federicus against Joseph Stalin’s Red Army, which was outnumbered and suffered around a quarter of a million dead and wounded. Commenting on Balakliia’s arrest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote Thursday night that “everything is in its proper place. The Ukrainian flag is in a free Ukrainian city under a free Ukrainian sky.” An image circulated on social media on Friday showed that Ukrainian troops had already reached the outskirts of the city of Kupiansk, a major railway hub. As the crow flies, Kupiansk is only about 40 kilometers from the Russian border. If Ukraine regains control of the city, this could potentially lead to the collapse of the Russian army group around Kharkiv. Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s office, said in a television interview broadcast Thursday night that Kupiansk is “a key strategic location through which the entire group of Russian troops in Kharkiv receives supply and reserves.” “This is a key transportation hub that we need to win back, and then we’ll see where to go from there — northward or southward,” Podoliak explained. Meanwhile, it is unclear what resistance Ukraine might face. On Friday afternoon, the Russian Defense Ministry released a short video purportedly showing a “transport of Russian troops in the direction of Kharkiv.” However, it was unclear from the plans how many troops and with what kind of equipment Russia could move to defend the area. Vitaly Gadchev, the Russian-appointed head of Kharkiv’s government, said in a television interview that pro-Russian authorities had begun “evacuating civilians” from Izyum and Kupiansk. While Kiev’s lightning advance may bring some relief to pro-Ukrainian locals, those who agreed to cooperate with occupation authorities in the Kherson region to the south could now face repercussions. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s chief of staff office, released a photo on Friday showing a captive blindfolded man with his hands tied behind his back, who was introduced as the former head of the Ivanivka government installed by Russia. village in Kherson region.
