The state border service in Kyiv announced that it had liberated the town of Bovchansk, a few kilometers from the international border. Russian soldiers left on Sunday, he added, after the stunning Ukrainian counterattack. Within days Ukraine pushed the Russians back from more than 6,000 square kilometers of territory, including areas in the south of the country where a separate counteroffensive is underway to retake the city of Kherson. This video released by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine shows the Ukrainian army in Vovchansk, a recently liberated city in the Kharkiv region, less than 20 kilometers away from the Ukrainian-Russian border on September 13. pic.twitter.com/h8yQAmtdOo — The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 13, 2022 The Russian units fled in disorder. Serhiy Hadai, governor of Luhansk region, said local rebels raised the Ukrainian flag over the key city of Kreminna, which was “completely empty”. Its Russian occupiers had either abandoned the area or were too scared to take it down, he suggested. Russian battalions have returned to new positions east of the Oskil River, about 10 miles from the recently liberated city of Izium. The city was almost completely destroyed and more than 1,000 residents were killed during the five-month occupation and in recent fighting, Kyiv says. The video confirmed the extent of the damage. It showed pulverized apartment blocks, trashed schools, blown-up bridges and burned-out Russian military vehicles with the letter Z. The Kremlin used Izium as a garrison and weapons depot in its operation to seize Donbas. A Western official said it was “too early to say” whether Ukraine’s success in reclaiming 6,000 square kilometers of territory in the Kharkiv region represented a “turning point” in the more than six-month war in a briefing, downplaying the importance of Kiev. recapture of Izium and Kupiansk. However, the official admitted, it was “a powerful moment” and confirmed that the area gained by Ukraine last week was “half the size of Wales”. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Western officials have praised Ukraine’s “innovative and experimental” military strategy compared to Russia, whose commanders have at times referred decisions to the Kremlin, slowing battlefield response. “Moscow is operating with a long screwdriver,” the official added. The US said it was helping Ukraine with possible counter-offensive war strategies in the weeks before the attack on Kharkiv province. Ukrainian commanders have begun to open up more to American and British intelligence officials and seek advice, the New York Times reported. “We did some modeling exercises and some tabletop exercises,” Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s policy chief, told the newspaper. “This set of exercises suggests that some avenues for a counterattack were likely to be more successful than others. We gave that advice and then the Ukrainians picked up on it and made their own decision.” There were claims on Tuesday that Russian intelligence officers and military commanders had begun evacuating from Crimea and “urgently resettling their families” in the wake of recent battlefield defeats. A military vehicle is abandoned after Russian forces withdrew from Balakliia, Kharkiv region, on September 13. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Kiev’s main intelligence directorate said officials working for the FSB – the spy agency run by Vladimir Putin – are quietly transporting their relatives back to the territory of the Russian Federation. They were also selling their apartments, the management claims. Until recently, the possibility of Ukraine taking back Crimea seemed remote. But a series of mysterious and devastating Ukrainian raids over the summer on Russian airports and weapons dumps, as well as the collapse of Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, have sent thousands of residents fleeing. The claim is difficult to verify. But Crimea’s Moscow-appointed leader, Serhiy Aksyonov, appears increasingly rattled. In a video address on Monday he threatened locals with persecution if they listen to Ukrainian music or chant Ukrainian slogans. From Monday, anyone who wants to leave the peninsula via the Crimean bridge will have to apply for permission from a conscription office, according to reports. The sale of houses is also prohibited. Local pro-Kremlin TV stations, meanwhile, tried to play down Russian losses. Battle for Kharkiv province According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian army has withdrawn from the right (north/west) bank of the Dnieper River, effectively abandoning a position outside the southern city of Kherson. Depleted troops from the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic have also withdrawn from the village of Kyselivka, leaving just four vehicles behind, it said. Kyselivka is strategically important for Russian forces and 15 kilometers northwest of Kherson. Russian soldiers defending the city are effectively shut down after Ukraine clinically destroyed all four bridges across the wide Dnieper River. Kherson’s northwestern suburbs were now vulnerable to a Ukrainian counterattack, ISW wrote.
