The Russian military setback is the Kremlin’s biggest since it was forced to scrap plans to seize the Ukrainian capital and has led to a growing wave of accusations in Moscow over who is to blame. President Vladimir Putin is fully informed about the redeployment of Russian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. The Defense Ministry has acknowledged that Russian troops have withdrawn back to the Kharkiv region, but authorities have since avoided calling it a retreat. “The president is in constant, 24-hour communication with the defense minister and all military commanders,” Peskov said. Asked if Putin still trusted his military leadership, Peskov said the “special military operation” – Moscow’s name for its invasion of Ukraine – would continue and “will continue until all the goals that were set are achieved at first”.

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On Monday, Ukrainian troops worked to consolidate the gains they had made since the offensive east of Kharkiv began. In Izyum, a key logistics hub where thousands of Russian troops were stationed, Ukrainian soldiers raised the national flag over the central district government building in the central square. Nataliya Humenyuk, a spokeswoman for the operations command in southern Ukraine, said on Monday that the country’s forces in the southern Kherson region, where Ukraine launched an earlier counteroffensive, had also liberated about 500 square kilometers of territory from Russian forces. Liberated towns include Vysokopigylia, Novovoznesenske, Bilokhirka, Suchy Stavok and Myroliubivka, he said. Tensions have also risen over artillery strikes on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Kyiv and Moscow blame each other for. Later on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his nightly speech said that the extent of recaptured territory had increased again compared to previous reports: “From the beginning of September to today, our soldiers have already liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian ground. east and south,” he said. “The movement of our troops continues.” In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, Putin warned of possible “catastrophic consequences” of what he claimed was the Ukrainian bombing of the plant. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are the ones striking the facility as a provocation. Macron said Russia was responsible for the tensions there and called for the withdrawal of Moscow’s forces. The Russian media appeared to be changing after the rapid developments, which followed weeks of deadlock. Over the weekend, anchors on Russian state television spoke of heavy fighting in the east, while pro-war reporters and bloggers wrote candid online posts about the devastation. “Well, brothers and sisters. Are you depressed? Squeak?” state TV journalist Andrei Medvedev wrote on Telegram on Saturday, as Russian troops withdrew from Izyum. “I know, I agree, it was a difficult day. It’s very difficult and it won’t be the last.” Other reporters embedded with Russian troops live-blogged their experience of the withdrawal — and warned leaders to take some lessons from the defeat.

“The army will certainly rise, there will be new victories,” wrote military reporter German Kulikovsky to his half a million subscribers. “But! If conclusions are not reached . . . on everything from infantry platoon tactics to new weapons systems . . . then there will be difficult times ahead not only for me and those involved in the special military operation, but for all of Russian society.” Additional reporting by Ben Hall in London