Ukraine Counter-Offensive: Kyiv Claims Major Gains; Russia Admits Retreat in East
UK Military Intel: “Russian forces were likely taken by surprise.”
As the Ukrainian counter-offensive enters its second week, the Russian military has been forced to pull back troops from the territory held in eastern Ukraine.
Acknowledging the success of Ukrainian advances in the east, the Russian Defense Ministry admitted withdrawing soldiers from the occupied Kharkiv region.
“Russia has ordered its troops to withdraw from two front line positions in eastern Ukraine in the face of a shock advance by Ukrainian forces,” Sky News reported Sunday. “The retreat on Saturday marked the most significant gain for Ukraine’s military since they defeated a Russian attempt to conquer the capital, Kyiv, back in March,” the broadcaster added.
Amid confirmed reports of Russia’s retreat, Kyiv claimed retaking a large swath of territory. “In his nightly video address on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Ukraine had now liberated 2,000 sq km (700 sq miles) from Russia since beginning a renewed counter-offensive earlier this month,” the BBC reported.
While the report was welcomed by the mainstream media as a major Ukrainian victory on the battlefield after more than 6 months of fighting, Russia claimed that it was merely “regrouping” its forces to strengthen its hold on the Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, country’s industrial heartland.
The Associated Press reported the Russian retreat:
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it was pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week.
The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war. (…)
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said troops would be regrouped from the Balakliya and Izyum areas to the eastern Donetsk region. Izyum was a major base for Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, and earlier this week social media videos showed residents of Balakliya joyfully cheering as Ukrainian troops moved in.
Konashenkov said the Russian move was being made “in order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas,’” an eastern area home to two separatist regions that Russia has declared sovereign.
The British military intelligence claimed that the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv region took the Russian forces by surprise.
It is worth noting that the main thrust of Kyiv’s counter-offensive was concentrated at liberating the south-eastern Kherson region, which acts as a secure land bridge to the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, home to Russia’s Black Sea naval base. Liberating the Kharkiv region in the east was not the stated objective of the Ukrainian pushback.
“Russian forces were likely taken by surprise. The sector was only lightly held and Ukrainian units have captured or surrounded several towns,” the UK Defense Ministry said its its daily intelligence updates on Sunday. “Its capture would be a significant blow to Russia because it sits on supply routes to the Donbas front line,” the intel analysis added.
(2/4) Russian forces were likely taken by surprise. The sector was only lightly held and Ukrainian units have captured or surrounded several towns.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 10, 2022
Terror Group Hamas’ Delegation to Visit Moscow
Amid raging war in Ukraine, a senior delegation of Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group Hamas is set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, the Israeli media reported Saturday. The delegation will be led by Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas chief who is on U.S. list of wanted “global terrorists.”
The meeting between the top leadership of Iran-backed jihadist group, Hamas, and Russian leadership comes as Kremlin is strengthening its military ties with Tehran. In late July, President Putin visited Iran amid reports that Moscow was trying to buy Iranian attack drones as Western sanctions hurt Moscow’s ability to acquire of cutting edge technology from elsewhere.
In the past decade, Russia and Iran have deepened their military cooperation. In Syria, Russian military are operating alongside Syria’s Iran-backed Assad regime and pro-Iranian Hezbollah terror militia.
The Jerusalem Post reported the upcoming meeting:
The chief political leader of Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas Ismail Haniyeh landed in Moscow on Saturday ahead of a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Gaza-based terror group said.
Haniyeh leads a senior Hamas delegation that includes military chief Saleh al-Arouri and other members of Hamas’ politburo.
Discussions in Russia will revolve around “mutual ties” and “other issues relating to the situation in Palestine,” Hamas noted.
The Islamic terrorist group’s leadership visit to Moscow also takes place “amid heightened tensions between Russia and Israel due to Israel’s support of Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion and other security conflicts, namely airstrikes over Syria which Russia has attributed to Israel,” the newspaper added.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Rooskis look like Paper Bears
Sure, those Russians are running for their lives. Oh no.
Ukraine-Russia war: Missiles hit Kharkiv infrastructure with widespread power cuts reported – live
I think the Russians are pushing us to spend all our money and make as much on the arms trade before they pull the trigger.
That is just terrorism on the way out. Normal for Russia.
The Russians are tricking us into spending all of our money!! Zelenskyy is pocketing billions of our tax dollars!! Biden is a mentally defective clown show and.. and… and… globohomo! Which makes Putin the GOOD MAN!
Putin will pull the trigger! THE ECONOMIC TRIGGER MACHINE. ITS LIKE A SECRET WEATHER MACHINE BUT ECONOMIC.
He’s so many chess moves ahead of us – we’re playing 2 dimensional chess while Putin plays 11th Dimensional String Theory chess!
https://twitter.com/dylanwelch/status/437710129861906432/photo/1
lol. Anyone who thinks Putin is somehow the good guy or if there are any good guys here are insane.
“…before they pull the trigger.”
What trigger do you think they can pull? Send more conscripts to the front lines?
Russia is going to try to consolidate as much as possible in Donbas and Crimea, They might lose the rest of the territory they stole and looted
Why does that sound funny…stole and looted? Only one getting stole and looted is the American people.
It sounds funny to dopes.
The Ukrainians in the middle of a war zone getting killed think you’re a funny ass.
I don’t understand the support some people show for Russia. Ukraine is an internationally recognised sovereign government and has been invaded by Russia for no reason other than Russia’s desire to seize its territory and resources.
Even as a pacifist I hope that the Russians are repulsed and Ukraine can live in peace again.
I don’t understand it, either, particularly coming from supposed American patriots who despise communism. Or claim to. Very odd.
I partially agree with Dathurtz. There are quite a few people that despise both the russians and ukrainians. OTOH, quite a few is not a plurality. There seem to be a huge number that are actively pulling for putin to win, something that I cannot understand.
I’ve been to these countries, Ukraine and Russia, plus Belarus. Ukraine is quite a beautiful place. The older people there, the ones that lived under the oppressive communist Soviet regime, were very much appreciative of the support Americans and Brits gave to them. I feel for them. I have friends, customers in Kharkiv. I have not heard from them in a long time now and fear for their safety. I know the factory was destroyed. In the earlier days I recognized some of the pictures coming from there.
I wouldn’t give you a dime for russia or belarus. And I would never go back to either place,
Because you are misinterpreting it. It is not about the Russians, it is about the corruption which is not mutually exclusive. I don’t agree with Russia, but if they were messing with Mexico like we have been with Ukraine, I think we would be doing the same thing.
A lot of it isn’t being pro-Russia, but anti-Ukraine. People resent that our government officials use Ukraine as a laundromat fed by tax dollars.
Also, refusing to drink the Ukr kool-aid is not pro-Russia. I thibk Putin is a murdering autocrat, but I also think the Ukr government is horrible and corrupt. I wish they could both lose.
The part that sucks is the suffering of the average person. It isn’t the normal Russian’s fault or the average Ukranian’s fault.
Well, Ukraine is an internationally recognized sovereign country that have been the playground of our rich elite for over 20 years. Ask Joe and Hunter Biden about it? As McCain’s friends? Ask Romney and his buddy Coffer Black?
Sovereign Country owned by….?
I hope that Russia really has been defeated, but you can’t conclude that from the destruction of one or two Russian armies. From Napoleon to Hitler, that’s the way most of the wars Russia won began. They have more armies. The only question is whether the men running Russia besides Putin are willing to let Putin use up more of their military.
During the Cold War, US military intelligence concluded that expendable armies were normal Soviet doctrine. We go to a great deal of trouble to keep our armies supplied with ammunition, food, spare parts, replacement troops, etc. The Soviets didn’t ; each army went forth carrying the supplies needed for the mission with it, and when those supplies were used up, the army was considered used up too. There was already a new army positioned to replace it. If the troops and tanks from expended armies could make it back, they’d be reformed into new armies, but that was not necessary to Soviet strategy.
It’s hardly over. Russia is still much larger and well-equipped. This is a long fight for Ukraine to regain it’s territory
Russia today is not communist. It’s more akin to a kleptocracy run by oligarchs. State controlled capitalism with international trade partners brings in the cash, but a robust ‘trickle-down’ economy for the prolitariate is severely limited inside of Russia. This is similar to China’s precarious, managed economy, but it’s more tightly controlled to where ‘communist’ is a more appropriate word for the ChiComs’ system.
Ukraine is not a country. It’s a crime syndicate with a flag. It sits between East & West; a perfect street corner for trade in weapons, drugs, sex slaves, renditions, money laundering, and industrial espionage. It’s why the Bidens make it their garden spot for family corruption.
A proxy war raged in Ukraine for 14 years between USA backed neo-nazis (Azov Battalion), and Russian backed separatists (Donbas rebels). 8,000 people died in the 14 year carnage and the world didn’t give a crap.
But now it’s PUTIN, PUTIN, PUTIN, OMG!, and Biden flushes another hundred billion $$$ down the Ukraine toilet to continue cover up of his family’s corruption. Our enemy is not in Moscow. He’s in the white house.
“Our enemy is not in Moscow. He’s in the white house.”
One can have more than one enemy. The most destructive of the two is in the white house.
The oligarchs serve at the pleasure of Putin, much like Nazi Germany.
Yep. The instant they get out of line, they’re jailed for extended periods of time, with their assets seized. Just like China.
As America’s oligarchs serve at the pleasure of the Democrat Party.
In this war, neither side is clean. As to the support for Ukraine, I still wonder just how much is being stolen… or… rerouted back to politicians. Bribery or blackmail? There was a cleansing of Ukraine of all things Russian leading up to the present conflict. Add to that the abrogation of US agreements leading up to Maidan. The invasion was a horrible miscalculation. However, the response to the invasion has caused more world-wide damage …. near suicidal…if not suicidal. Whoever “wins”… it’s phyrric.
BTW, this is a nice distract for the midterms. Any chance a small nuke or power plant blows up to stop the election? Hmm, maybe the Feds will take out a VIP to throw the election. I would not put it past them.
In order to destabilize the situation in the territory liberated by the Russian Armed Forces and the suffering of civilians, the Kiev regime continues its deliberate shelling of energy infrastructure: generating facilities, transformer substations, and power lines.
Since September 1 this year, the territory of the Zaporozhye NPP and the city of Energodar have been subjected to artillery fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces 26 times, including the territory of the nuclear plant.
At the same time, as a result of aimed fire on the transformer substation on September 6 and the power line on September 8, the city of Energodar was twice remained without electricity.
In the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Ukrainian artillery repeatedly struck 22 important power supply facilities in order to de-energize populated areas, kindergartens, life support facilities for the population, and industrial enterprises.
On September 1, three mines of the Donetsk Coal Energy Company, where dozens of miners were trapped underground, were de-energized as a result of the strike.
Yesterday, September 10, 19 transformer substations in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk were de-energized due to shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. More than 1,600 civilian objects were remained without electricity as a result of the shelling.
It’s important to say that the daily strikes against civilian infrastructure are carried out by the Kiev regime in a deliberate and targeted manner.
Source: https://www.moonofalabama.org/
Another damn putinbot.
Sick.
It’s quite possible to be opposed to the biden regime without pulling for the same types in russia.