Ukraine war: Russia launches ‘massive strikes’ to keep Kyiv’s progress in check

Russia says it has launched “huge strikes” in response to Ukrainian troops’ lightning counter-offensive. 

Russian bombing has to this point killed eight folks and wounded 19 in 24 hours within the north-eastern area of Kharkiv and the japanese area of Donetsk, the Ukrainian presidency stated.

“The Russian air power, ballistics and artillery are finishing up huge strikes towards models of the Ukrainian armed forces in all operational areas,” the Russian defence ministry stated on Tuesday.

It referred specifically to bombardments close to Sloviansk, Konstantinivka and Bakhmut in japanese Ukraine, in addition to within the southern areas of Mykolaïv and Zaporijjia and in that of Kharkiv, from the place Russian troopers have nearly utterly withdrawn within the face of Ukrainian advances.

The Russian offensive launched on 24 February will proceed “till the aims are achieved”, the Kremlin had hammered the day earlier than, in response to which there are at the moment “no prospects for negotiations” between the 2 nations.

In the meantime, Kyiv says Russian troopers are committing “as much as 200 warfare crimes per day” that are being uncovered in areas newly liberated by Ukrainian troopers within the east and north of the nation, and that as much as 70,000 sq. kilometres in ten areas have been mined by Russian troops. 

For its half, Russia stated that the Ukrainian army was finishing up harsh reprisals towards civilians within the areas it had retaken in latest days.

“In line with our info, there are numerous punitive actions towards the inhabitants of the Kharkiv area, individuals are being tortured, mistreated,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, including: “It’s revolting.”

Zelenskyy says Ukrainian troops have retaken giant tracts of land

Ukraine has now recaptured greater than 6,000 sq. kilometres in a lightning warfare advance that pressured Russian troops to make a hasty retreat, stated Ukrainian President Volodymyyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainians say they’ve additionally captured so many Russian prisoners of warfare that they are working out of house to accommodate them, as troops had been surrendering en masse as “they perceive the hopelessness of their state of affairs”, stated a spokesperson for Ukrainian army intelligence. 

In a late-night video handle, Zelenskyy stated “for the reason that starting of September, our troopers have already liberated 6,000 sq. kilometres of Ukrainian territory within the east and south, and we’re persevering with to advance”. 

That is a rise from Sunday’s figures when Kyiv claimed solely 3,000 sq. kilometres had been retaken. 

Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered over newly liberated cities throughout a large swath of reclaimed land. The Ukrainian army stated it had freed greater than 20 settlements in 24 hours.

Now Ukrainian groups are disarming land mines and different unexploded weapons within the recaptured areas and trying to find any remaining Russian troops, officers stated.

It was not but clear if the Ukrainian blitz may sign a turning level within the warfare. Momentum has switched backwards and forwards earlier than, however not often with such a giant and sudden swing.

Russia admits battlefield setbacks

After months of little discernible motion on the battlefield, the momentum has lifted Ukrainian morale and provoked uncommon public criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warfare.

The counteroffensive left the Kremlin struggling for a response to its largest army defeat in Ukraine since Russian forces pulled again from areas close to Kyiv after a botched try and seize the capital early within the invasion.

The Russian Protection Ministry acknowledged the setback in a map that confirmed its troops pressed again alongside a slim patch of land on the border with Russia – a tacit admission of massive Ukrainian positive aspects.

Reviews of chaos abounded as Russian troops pulled out.

“The Russians had been right here within the morning. Then at midday, they out of the blue began shouting wildly and started to run away, charging off in tanks and armoured automobiles,” Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of lately liberated Zaliznychne, a small city close to the japanese entrance line, informed Sky Information.

Video taken by the Ukrainian army confirmed troopers elevating the Ukrainian flag over battle-damaged buildings. In a single scene, a fighter wiped his boots on a Russian flag on the bottom. Different movies confirmed Ukrainians inspecting the wreckage of Russian army automobiles, together with tanks.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich didn’t specify the variety of Russian prisoners however stated the POWs can be exchanged for Ukrainian service members held by Moscow. Navy intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov stated the captured troops included “important” numbers of Russian officers.

Ukraine’s deputy inside minister accused fleeing Russian forces of burning official paperwork and concealing our bodies in an try and cowl up rights violations within the areas they managed till final week.

The temper was jubilant throughout the nation.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis and the capital of the area the place the positive aspects have been made, authorities hailed that energy and water had been restored to about 80% of the area’s inhabitants following Russian assaults on infrastructure that knocked out electrical energy in lots of locations throughout Ukraine.

“You’re heroes!!!” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, referring to crews who restored utilities in Ukraine’s second-biggest metropolis. “Due to everybody who did all the pieces potential on this most troublesome evening for Kharkiv to normalize the lifetime of town as quickly as potential.”

State TV criticises warfare efforts and blame NATO for losses

In the meantime, in Russia, indicators of disarray emerged as Russian army bloggers and different commentators chastised the Kremlin for failing to mobilize extra forces and take stronger motion towards Ukraine.

Russia has constantly stopped wanting calling its invasion a warfare, as an alternative describing it as a “particular army operation” and counting on a restricted contingent of volunteers as an alternative of a mass mobilization that would spur civil discontent and protest.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed chief of the Russian area of Chechnya, publicly criticized the Russian Protection Ministry for what he known as “errors” that made the Ukrainian blitz potential.

Much more notable, such criticism seeped onto state-controlled Russian TV.

“Individuals who satisfied President Putin that the operation will likely be quick and efficient … these folks actually arrange all of us,” Boris Nadezhdin, a former parliament member, stated on a chat present on NTV tv. “We’re now on the level the place we have now to know that it’s completely unattainable to defeat Ukraine utilizing these sources and colonial warfare strategies.”

Some in Russia blamed Western weapons and fighters for the losses.

“It’s not Ukraine that attacked Izium, however NATO,” learn a headline within the state-supported Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, referring to one of many areas the place Russia stated it has withdrawn troops.