And in his nightly address to his nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the “advance of our forces” continues. His claims appear to be supported by the renowned think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based group that provides defense and foreign affairs research and analysis. He said the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region was “displacing Russian forces and collapsing the northern axis of Russia’s Donbas.” He continued: “Russian forces are not conducting a controlled withdrawal and are hastily leaving the southeastern Kharkiv region (an administrative region) to escape the encirclement around Izyum.” A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as they “realized the hopelessness of their situation” and an adviser to President Zelensky said there were so many prisoners of war the country was running out of space to house them. It is claimed that the Ukrainian army liberated more than 20 settlements within 24 hours. Image: A Ukrainian soldier stands on top of a Russian howitzer captured during the counter-attack In recent days, Kiev’s forces have seized territory at least twice the size of greater London, according to the British Ministry of Defence. “Since the beginning of September and until today, our fighters have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in the south and east,” Zelensky said in his nightly video. He said he was grateful for the soldiers who “advanced very bravely, with great confidence” and who “advanced steadily in spite of everything – in spite of the features of the open ground, in spite of the artillery of the conquerors. “Guys, you are true heroes!” he added. All Ukraine war updates – live After months of little discernible movement on the battlefield, the momentum boosted Ukraine’s morale and prompted a rare public criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war. Russian military bloggers and patriotic commentators criticized the Kremlin for failing to mobilize more forces and take stronger action. Russia has consistently stopped short of calling its invasion a war, instead describing it as a “special military operation.” Across Ukraine, the mood was jubilant. In Kharkiv, the second-largest city and the capital of the region where the gains were made, authorities said electricity and water had been restored to about 80 percent of the region’s population after overnight Russian attacks on infrastructure knocked out power. energy in many places. Eyewitness: Bodies left to rot as people describe burying neighbors – life in a liberated village Image: After Ukrainian gains, Russian forces responded by hitting infrastructure like this power station in Kharkiv. Photo: AP Ukrainian forces are said to have pushed all the way to the northeastern border in some places, forcing the Russians into a hasty retreat. There were reports of chaos as Russian troops withdrew. “The Russians were here in the morning. Then at noon, they suddenly started shouting wildly and started running with tanks and armored vehicles,” Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of the recently liberated Zaliznychne, a small town near the east . front line, he told Sky News. Video taken by the Ukrainian military shows soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over buildings damaged by the battle. In one scene, a fighter wiped his boots on a Russian flag on the ground. Other videos showed Ukrainians inspecting the wreckage of Russian military vehicles, including tanks. Ukrainian teams were disarming landmines and other unexploded weapons in the retaken areas and searching for any remaining Russian troops, officials said. But defense experts have warned that the battle in Ukraine has ebbed and flowed in recent months.
