Ukrainian forces have made one of the most significant gains since the Russian invasion, capturing the Kremlin’s main military stronghold in the northwest of the country after making sweeping territorial advances in a surprise offensive.
The spectacular Russian frontline collapse on one of the main routes into the battleground of the Donbas came with the strategically vital city of Izium, which was surrounded by Ukrainian troops after they cut off a key supply line through Kupiansk to the north, towards Kharkiv.
The ministry of defence in Moscow announced that Russian forces in Izium and Balakliia, already under Ukrainian control, were being pulled back to the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic and described the move as a “regrouping” to achieve the “liberation of the Donbas”.
What is unfolding in the Kharkiv region is being seen as the most serious reverse suffered by the Kremlin since its forces were driven away from their assault on Kyiv at the start of the war, saving the capital and preventing Vladimir Putin’s purported decapitation of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian attack in the Kharkiv region appears to have caught the Russian military, focusing on another Ukrainian assault in the Kherson area in the south, unaware. The retreat led to immediate recriminations back home, with demands for inquiries into why things have gone so wrong.
Vitaly Ganchev, the Moscow-appointed head of the occupied Kharkiv region, said on Saturday that civilians were being evacuated from Kupiansk and Izium.
Russia had previously moved thousands of troops from the Donbas area to counter a Ukrainian offensive towards Kherson in the south, where both sides are believed to have suffered extensive casualties.
