Since Moscow abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, suffering its worst defeat since the first days of the war, Ukrainian troops have recaptured dozens of towns in a stunning shift in battlefield momentum. A senior US military official said Russia has largely ceded territory near Kharkiv in the northeast and pulled many of its troops back across the border. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Washington and its allies have provided Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of weapons that Kyiv says have helped curb Russian gains. In a video speech late Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine and the West must “strengthen cooperation to defeat Russian terrorism.” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Ukrainian forces had made “significant progress” with Western support. “What they have done is very methodically planned and of course it benefits from significant support from the United States and many other countries in terms of making sure that Ukraine has the equipment it needs to repel this counterattack,” Blinken said in during a press conference in Mexico City. Washington announced its latest weapons program for Ukraine last week, including munitions for HIMARS anti-missile systems, and has previously sent NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine, which are capable of shooting down aircraft. read more Zelensky said Ukraine has recaptured about 6,000 square kilometers of land, a fraction of Ukraine’s total land of about 600,000 square kilometers. The land recaptured is roughly equivalent to the combined area of the West Bank and Gaza. Russia has taken control of about a fifth of Ukraine since its troops invaded on February 24.
RUSSIA IS SILENT
President Vladimir Putin and his senior officials have remained largely silent in the face of the worst defeat for Russian forces since April when they were pushed back from the outskirts of Kiev. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Monday to a reporter’s question about whether Putin still has confidence in the military leadership. “The special military operation continues. And it will continue until the goals that were initially set are achieved,” Peskov said. Putin appeared on state television on Monday to preside over a meeting on the economy in which he said Russia was holding up well in the face of Western sanctions. “The economic blitzkrieg tactics, the attack they were counting on, didn’t work,” he said. Sony Music has joined the list of global companies pulling out of Russia, saying on Tuesday that it is transferring the business and musicians to local management because of the conflict in Ukraine. “As the war continues to have a devastating humanitarian impact in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia continue to increase, we can no longer maintain our presence in Russia,” Sony Music said in a statement. read more The war in Ukraine, a major grain supplier, has also sent world food prices skyrocketing. The International Monetary Fund’s executive board, under pressure to provide emergency financing to countries facing food price shocks, considered a plan on Monday to help Ukraine and other countries hit hard by Russia’s war, Reuters reported. sources familiar with the matter. read more
“MAN IS HAPPY”
As thousands of Russian troops withdrew, leaving ammunition and equipment behind, Russia fired missiles at power stations, causing a blackout in Kharkiv and the neighboring regions of Poltava and Sumy. Bombing of residential areas and infrastructure caused fires in the city throughout the day on Monday, regional emergency services said on Facebook. Bombing around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has sparked serious concerns about the risk of radioactive fallout. The UN Atomic Inspection Agency has proposed a buffer zone around the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, and both sides are interested, the IAEA chief said. “We are playing with fire,” Rafael Grossi told reporters. “We cannot continue in a situation where we are one step away from a nuclear accident. The safety of the Zaporizhia power plant is hanging by a thread.” read more Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Moscow was struggling to bring reserves to the south, where Ukraine is trying to isolate thousands of Russian troops on the west bank of the Dnipro river, forcing most Russian forces to focus on “urgent defensive actions”. Ukraine’s southern command said its forces had recaptured 500 square kilometers of territory in the south, killing 59 Russian soldiers in the past 24 hours and destroying 20 pieces of equipment. The situation there could not be independently confirmed. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Aretovych said Ukrainian forces were making progress in Donetsk and crossed the Siverskyi Donets River, threatening to retake key towns lost to Russian forces after weeks of heavy fighting in June and July. As Ukrainian forces edged closer to territory seized from Russian troops in the north, jubilant residents returned to frontline villages for the first time in months. “People are crying, people are happy, of course. How could they not be happy!” said retired English teacher Zoya, 76, in the now quiet village of Zolochiv, north of Kharkiv and 18 km from the Russian border. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Report by Reuters reporters. Written by Rami Ayyub and Lincoln Feast. Edited by Shri Navaratnam Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
