Ukraine claims rapid pushback of Russian troops on two fronts

October 5 ------ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country’s military had made major, rapid advances against Russian forces and freed dozens of towns in the south and east over the last week.

“This week alone, since the Russian pseudo-referendum, dozens of population centers have been liberated. These are in Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions all together,” he said in a nighttime address. Last month, referendums were held on joining Russia in four regions, and Moscow used the overwhelming vote in favor as grounds for annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The vote was widely condemned by the West as rigged.

Zelensky cited eight small towns in Kherson in the south by name as recently having been recaptured. A video released by the Ukraine defense ministry appeared to show the Ukrainian flag being raised over one of those communities, Davydiv Brid, in Kherson. Ukrainian forces retook several villages in an advance along the strategic Dnipro River, Ukrainian officials and a Russian-backed leader in the area said. In the east, Ukrainian forces have been expanding an offensive after capturing the main Russian bastion in the north of Donetsk, the town of Lyman, hours after Putin proclaimed the annexation of the province last week. Russian forces in the Donetsk and Kherson regions have been forced to retreat in recent days and appear to be struggling to halt an increasingly Western-equipped Ukrainian army.

Russia does not fully control any of the four regions it claims – Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south – and the Kremlin has said it has yet to determine the final borders of the annexed territory. Russia has escalated its seven-month war with the annexation drive, a military mobilization and warnings of a possible recourse to nuclear weapons to protect all of its territory.

Russian defense ministry maps presented appeared to show rapid withdrawals of Russian forces from areas in eastern and southern Ukraine where they have been under severe pressure from the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The ministry’s daily video briefing made no mention of any pullbacks, but on maps used to show the location of purported Russian strikes, the shaded area designating Russian military control was much smaller than the day before. On the eastern front, Denis Pushilin, the Russia-backed leader in Donetsk, said Russian forces were building a serious line of defense around the city of Kreminna after being pushed back. In the early hours, a missile crashed into the outskirts of the Ukraine-controlled eastern city of Kramatorsk. A reporter on the scene said the missile had gouged a huge crater in the backyard of a house.

US President Joe Biden told Zelensky in a call that Washington would provide Kyiv with $625 million in new security assistance, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers. Biden also reiterated that the United States would “never recognize” Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory, the White House said. Earlier, the European Union also rejected Moscow’s “illegal annexation” and urged it to unconditionally withdraw its troops. The 193-member UN General Assembly will meet on next week over Russia’s annexation. The General Assembly is expected to vote on a draft resolution denouncing Russia’s action, diplomats said. Russia vetoed a similar resolution in the 15-member Security Council last week.

A Western diplomat told reporters NATO had not warned its members of a Russian nuclear threat. Separately, a NATO official said the alliance had not observed any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture but that NATO remained vigilant.

Source: rappler.com