A turning point: Russia suffers worst defeat, loses key Ukraine city

Russia has abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine, in a sudden collapse of one of the war’s principal front lines after Ukrainian forces made a rapid advance, according to AlJazeera. It said that the swift fall of Izyum in Kharkiv province was Moscow’s worst defeat since its troops were forced back from the capital, Kyiv, in March.

The development could prove a decisive turning point in the 6-month-old war, with thousands of Russian soldiers abandoning ammunition stockpiles and equipment as they fled. Russian forces used Izium as the logistics base for one of their main campaigns – a months-long assault from the north on the adjacent Donbas region comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, according to an NDTV report. The state-run TASS news agency quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying it had ordered troops to leave the vicinity and reinforce operations elsewhere in neighbouring Donetsk. Ukrainian armed forces are continuing to advance in different areas along the front, Ukrainian president Zelenskiy said.

Ukrainian leaders rejoice the Russian retreat

“The Russian army these days is demonstrating its best ability – to show its back,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address Saturday evening. Ukraine’s armed forces have liberated around 2,000 square kilometres (770 square miles) of territory since a counter-offensive against Russia started earlier this month, he said, according to AlJazeera.

Ukrainian officials stopped short of confirming they had recaptured Izium, but Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, posted a photo of troops on its outskirts and tweeted an emoji of grapes. The city’s name means “raisin”. “The Russian army is claiming the title of fastest army in the world … keep running!” Yermak wrote on Twitter later.

Russia announces withdrawal

The Russian withdrawal announcement came hours after Ukrainian troops captured the city of Kupiansk farther north, the sole railway hub supplying Russia’s entire front line across northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials posted photos early on Saturday of their troops raising the country’s blue-and-yellow flag in front of Kupiansk’s city hall, reported the NDTV. That left thousands of Russian troops abruptly cut off from supplies along a front that has seen some of the most intense battles of the war.

Mechanised Assault

Days ago, Kyiv’s forces burst through the front line and have since recaptured dozens of towns and villages in a swift mechanised assault, surging forward dozens of kilometres (miles) a day. “To achieve the stated goals of the Special Military Operation for the liberation of Donbas, it was decided to regroup the Russian troops located in the districts of Balakliia and Izium for the purpose of increasing efforts in the Donetsk direction,” TASS quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, sounded a cautionary note, urging people not to report prematurely that towns have been “taken” just because Ukrainian troops have entered, as in Balakliia.

‘The Russian debacle’

A witness in Valuyki, a town in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, told Reuters she saw families from Kupiansk eating and sleeping in their cars along roads. “I was at the market today and saw a lot of people from Kupiansk. They say half of the city was taken by the Ukrainian army and Russia is retreating… the fighting is getting closer,” the witness told the news agency. Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said officials were giving food and medical aid to people queuing at a crossing into Russia. Senator Andrey Turchak, from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, reported more than 400 vehicles at the frontier.

(With agencies’ inputs)