Russia sends reinforcements after seeing Ukraine’s ‘substantial victory’ in the north

Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces in the Kharkiv region proved, at least initially, a “substantial victory” for Kiev.

The rare admission was made this Friday (9) by one of the Kremlin-appointed administrators for that area of ​​northeastern Ukraine, Vitali Gantchev, in an even more unusual setting: Russian state TV, which usually shows a sweetened version of what is called “special military operation”.

“The very fact that our defenses were breached is a substantial victory for the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” said the Ukrainian collaborator, a native of Kharkiv, capital of the eponymous province that had been partially occupied by the Russians since April.

He said Russian reinforcements had already arrived in the area, which will be the scene of “tough battles”. The Russian Defense Ministry released a video of trucks and armored vehicles heading ahead from the neighboring regions of Belgorodo and Kursk.

Since the beginning of the week, reports surfaced that Kiev was pressuring Moscow to open a front in the north of the country, while its counteroffensive in Kherson (south) faced great resistance. They were confirmed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday (7), and on Thursday the leader said that 1,000 km² had been recaptured.

It’s not possible to know if there is the usual exaggeration in the statement, but the strangely frank reaction of the Russians suggests that this time Zelensky is not just posing for the cameras. Military analysts and bloggers in Moscow say the front split was big, but Kiev may not have enough reserves to sustain the initial advance.

It remains to be seen whether the Russians, who had already diverted forces to contain the attack on Kherson, have where to get men to protect the occupied areas of Kharkiv, whose capital they did not take, despite intense attacks on the city, Ukraine’s second largest. The lack of human resources, due to the fact that there was no general mobilization for political reasons, has affected the entire Russian campaign.

According to the Kiev Armed Forces, the advance has already reached 50 km, and videos on social networks show what would be residents cheering Ukrainian soldiers in cities abandoned by the Russians. The focus of the offensive appears to be Kupiansk, a railway outpost through which supplies sent from Russia pass for the main focus of its action, the fighting in Donbass (east of the country), on the eastern border of Kharkiv.

This initiative was seen by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as “encouraging”. But the counteroffensive situation in the south of the country does not look so rosy to Zelensky. The American newspaper The Washington Post interviewed a number of soldiers wounded in the action, and the reports are of superiority of Russian forces in the region and lack of supplies for the Ukrainian ones.

Kiev responded by sending police after the local reporter who helped the Americans craft the text — in keeping with the pattern of disrespect for journalism that marks both sides of the war.