By Tariq Tahir, Isaac Crowson, Katie Davis
RUSSIAN soldiers raised a white flag as they fled a lightning Ukrainian advance that has reclaimed large swathes of territory, it was reported.
The offensive demolished Russian lines and allowed Ukrainian soldiers to retake 30 towns in a key part of their country as Putin’s troops abandoned a crucial city.
It enabled President Volodymyr Zelensky’s heroes to advance as much as 30 miles south of Kharkiv.
Vitaly Ganchev, head of the Russian-backed administration in the Kharkiv region, all-but admitted that large tracts of its front line had crumbled there.
The advances led CIA director William Burns to brand Putin’s invasion as “already a failure”.
In major humiliation for Vladimir Putin, the Russian defence ministry admitted its troops have been forced to withdraw from the key city of Izium in the face of the onslaught.
The city was a major Russian bastion in the area of northeastern Ukraine it still held and its defeat could mark a major turning point in the war.
The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province is Moscow’s worst defeat since its troops were forced back from the capital Kyiv in March, and could prove a turning point in the six-month war.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov has said Ukrainian forces have not yet entered Izium, but are “very close”.
He told YES: “The liberation of all our territories is significant and we are going to liberate all temporarily occupied territories.”
But tonight Russia said troops were “regrouping” from the Balakliya and Izium areas and will be sent to reinforce operations elsewhere in the neighbouring Russian breakaway area of Donetsk.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the move was being made “in order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas”, one of the eastern Ukraine regions that Russia has declared sovereign.
The claim of a withdrawal to concentrate on Donetsk is similar to the justification Russia gave for pulling back its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this year when they failed to take the capital.
“Yesterday evening, Russians put a white flag nearby the railway station,” a Ukrainian officer who participated in the liberation of Izium told the New York Times.
President Zelensky on Saturday said had now liberated 2,000sqkm from Russia since the renewed counter-offensive launched earlier this month.
As the Ukrainians advanced, a bloodied and bruised senior Russian officer was seen after being captured.
Meanwhile, footage showed the shocking moment Russian troops fell off a speeding tank before it crashed into a tree during a humiliating retreat in Ukraine.
Drone footage shows multiple Kremlin soldiers hurtling off the out-of-control tank in Kharkiv as Ukraine continue its 30-mile advance into Russian-occupied areas.
The Russian announcement comes hours after Ukrainian troops captured the city of Kupiansk further north, the sole railway hub supplying Russia’s entire frontline across northeastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials posted photos of their troops raising the country’s blue and yellow flag in front of city hall in Kupiansk at dawn.
Ukrainian forces have recaptured dozens of towns and villages held by Russia for months, since bursting through the frontline earlier this week.
That left thousands of Russian troops abruptly cut off from supplies across an entire stretch of the front that has seen some of the most intense battles of the war.
“There is still a lot that we don’t know about the offensive, but it is clear this was well planned and executed by Ukrainian forces,” said Rob Lee, a military analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
“It looks like a very effective combined arms operation with tanks, mechanized infantry, Special Operations forces, air defenses, artillery and other systems.”
Mark Hertling, a retired four-star general and former commander of US ground forces in Europe, said Ukraine “is executing a brilliant maneuver”.
He added: “But the Russians are helping them – by doing very little to counter.”
Russian forces had fought hard to capture Izium early in the war.
It was used as the logistics base for one of their main campaigns – a months-long assault from the north on the adjacent Donbas region.
The Russian defeat could prove to be a decisive turning point in the six-month war, with thousands of Russian soldiers abandoning their ammunition stockpiles and equipment as they flee.
It brought a swift and sudden end to a period during which the war had been fought as a relentless grind on a static front, favouring Moscow’s advantage in raw firepower.
Ukraine’s top general has raised fears Russian defeats on the battlefield could lead to Putin ordering the use of nuclear weapons.
Ukrainian officials stopped short of confirming that they had recaptured Izium.
But President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak tweeted an emoji of grapes.
The word “Izium” means “raisin” in Ukrainian and Russian.
The Sun / CNN
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