Mark Episkopos
Ukrainian forces are consolidating their gains in the northeast as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promises new offensives to recapture lost territories.
Ukrainian forces crossed the Oskil River in the northeastern Kharkiv region and now control both of the river’s banks, according to the Ukrainian military. The news comes shortly on the heels of earlier claims by Russian military correspondents that Russian forces left the city of Kupyansk on the heels of a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive. There have been unverified reports that Russian troops in the area are regrouping for an offensive to retake Kupyansk, with claimed sightings of Russian troops massing on the town’s outskirts. Ukraine confirmed that Russian forces are attempting to counterattack across several fronts in the northeast. “During the past day, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled enemy attacks in the areas of Kupyansk, Hoptivka, Mykolaivka Druga, Vesela Dolyna, Odradivka, Maryinka, Novomykhailivka and Pravdyne settlements," the Ukrainian military said, according to CNN.
Zelenskyy promised further battlefield victories in his nightly video address. "Maybe now it seems to some of you that after a series of victories we have a certain lull," he said. "But this is not a lull. This is preparation for the next series. … Because Ukraine must be free—all of it," the president added.
Ukrainian forces launched two major offensives earlier this month: one on the Kherson-Mykolaiv border in the south and the other in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Whereas the southern offensive has so far proceeded without major verified gains for Kyiv, Ukrainian forces were able to recapture vast swathes of territory in the northeast—including the regional Russian stronghold of Izium—after catching Russian troops there by surprise. In the days following Ukraine’s advances in the Kharkiv region, Russian forces executed sweeping strikes against Ukraine’s power grid and critical hydraulic infrastructure in the southern city of Krivyi Rih, causing widespread electricity outages in parts of Ukraine and flooding to the country’s south.
The Ukrainian military’s rapid advances in the northeast were accompanied by what local authorities in Russia’s adjacent Belgorod region described as an uptick in purported Ukrainian cross-border attacks. Russian officials, who have accused Ukraine of shelling the far-western town of Zhuravlevka and opening fire near border checkpoints, announced last week that they are organizing the evacuation of several border settlements deeper inside Russia. Kyiv has previously rejected claims that its forces have struck targets in Russian territory.
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