Fresh yellow and blue flags fluttered from the tallest buildings left in partially destroyed towns around Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, as Ukrainian soldiers inspected charred Russian tanks left on the march. “From the beginning of September until today, our soldiers have already liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine — in the east and south. The movement of our troops continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night speech on Monday. Many of the claims of military success could not be independently verified. Rubbing salt into Russia’s wounds, British intelligence reported that one of Moscow’s flagship forces, the 1st Guards Tank Army, had been “severely degraded” during the invasion and that “Russia’s conventional force designed to face NATO has been seriously weakened. It will likely take years for Russia to rebuild this capability.” However, the retreat did not stop Russia from pounding Ukrainian positions. Early on Tuesday, it shelled the city of Lozova in the Kharkiv region, killing three people and injuring nine, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. The region of Nikopol, which is across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was shelled six times overnight, but no injuries were immediately reported, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said. Continued shelling has left Europe’s largest nuclear facility in a precarious position. Zelensky specifically criticized Russia for targeting energy infrastructure in its attacks in recent days. “Hundreds and thousands of Ukrainians found themselves in the dark — without electricity. Homes, hospitals, schools, community infrastructure… places that have absolutely nothing to do with the infrastructure of our country’s armed forces.” He said he could only show one thing. “This is a sign of the desperation of those who invented this war. This is how they react to the defeat of the Russian forces in the Kharkiv area. They can’t do anything to our heroes on the battlefield.” Ukrainian military intelligence reported that Russian troops were surrendering en masse. An adviser to Ukraine’s president said there were so many prisoners of war that the country had no room to accommodate them. The counteroffensive left the Kremlin scrambling for a response to its biggest military defeat in Ukraine since Russian forces withdrew from areas near Kyiv after a failed attempt to take the capital early in the invasion. Russia’s defense ministry acknowledged the setback on a map that showed its troops being pushed back to a narrow strip of land on the border with Russia – a tacit acknowledgment of major Ukrainian gains. It was not yet clear whether the Ukrainian blitz could mark a turning point in the war. Momentum has swung back and forth in the past, but rarely with such a large and sudden swing. Some in Russia blamed Western weapons and fighters for the casualties. “It is not Ukraine that attacked Izium, but NATO,” read a headline in the state-backed Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, referring to one of the areas where Russia said it had withdrawn its troops. Elsewhere, residents of a Russian village just across the border with Ukraine were evacuated after shelling by Ukrainian troops killed one person, according to Russia’s Tass news agency. The publication cited the head of the local administration in Logachefka as saying that Ukrainian troops opened fire at a border checkpoint. ___ Arhirova reported from Kyiv.
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