Ukraine launches counteroffensive on Russian troops
With assistance from the U.S., Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces in an effort to retake regions.
Ariana Triggs, USA TODAY
A phalanx of military experts sweeping across Russian TV are admitting the Kremlin’s defeat in Kharkiv region as Ukrainian forces on Wednesday pressed a counteroffensive that has driven occupying troops out of about 300 northeastern cities and towns.
“The Kremlin acknowledged its defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, the first time Moscow has openly recognized a defeat,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment of a war that began with Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
Kremlin officials and state media propagandists on TV are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv. Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of Russia’s Council for Interethnic Relations, lamented the lack of military reconnaissance ahead of the counteroffensive, the Daily Beast reported.
“Of course, this is a tactical defeat,” Bezpalko said. “I hope it will be very sobering.”
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Latest developments:
►The Biden administration is expected to nominate Lynne Tracy, the current U.S. ambassador to Armenia and a veteran foreign service officer with years of experience in Russian affairs, as its next ambassador to Russia. Under the rules of diplomatic protocol, the Kremlin would have to approve the nomination.
►Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has worked to secure the releases of WNBA star Brittney Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan from Russian captivity, met with Russian leaders in Moscow this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of the anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Previously, the Kremlin framed the retreat from Kyiv as a decision to prioritize the “liberation” of Donbas. The withdrawal from Snake Island was a “gesture of goodwill.”
Now, the Institute for the Study of Warsaid the admission in Kharkiv is part of an effort to deflect criticism for such a devastating failure away from Russian President Vladimir Putin and onto defense officials.
“The Russian Ministry of Defense originally offered a similar explanation for the Russian failure in Kharkiv, claiming that Russian forces were withdrawing troops from Kharkiv Oblast to regroup,” the institute’s assessment says. “This false narrative faced quick and loud criticism online.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Izium on Wednesday, just days after Russian forces exited the city in the Kharkiv region. He toured apartment buildings blackened by fire and pockmarked by artillery strikes. The entire center of one residential building had collapsed.
Zelenskyy took part in the ceremony of raising the Ukraine flag in the city’s central square, in front of the destroyed municipal building.
“It is possible to temporarily occupy the territories of our state,” Zelenskyy said. “But it is definitely impossible to occupy our people, the Ukrainian people.”
As in previous cities and towns occupied and then abandoned by Russian troops, Ukrainian authorities said they have found signs of atrocities, including six bodies with traces of torture in recently retaken Kharkiv region villages.
“We have a terrible picture of what the occupiers did. … Such cities as Balakliia, Izium are standing in the same row as Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin,” said Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, naming locations where Russian forces allegedly committed atrocities.
As European consumers grapple with electricity prices that have skyrocketed up to fivefold the cost of a year ago mostly because of the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s stunningly successful counteroffensive in the northeast may help validate the sacrifice.
In her State of the European Union address Wednesday, European Union Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said she would visit Kyiv later in the day as a sign of support for the Ukrainians, adding that the bloc is committed to the cause and will open its markets more to the country’s products.
“We have seen in the last days the bravery of Ukrainians paying off,” said von der Leyen, who was dressed in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and characterized the war as “autocracy against democracy.”
She also called for reshaping the way the EU sets electricity prices because the current system is “not doing justice to consumers anymore.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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