‘Substantial victory’ for Kyiv acknowledged on Russian TV after Ukrainian

KYIV, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Russian state television broadcast an interview on Friday acknowledging that Kyiv had achieved a “substantial victory”, after Ukrainian forces burst through the frontline in a lightning advance.

The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and one of the biggest shifts in the war’s momentum since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital Kyiv in March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said troops had “liberated dozens of settlements” and reclaimed more than 1,000 square km (385 square miles) of territory in Kharkiv region in the east as well as Kherson in the south in the past week.

Western military analysts say the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway Moscow has relied on to sustain its force in eastern Ukraine, and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off.

After a day of providing little or no response, Russia’s defence ministry released video of its troops being rushed to reinforce the area.

“The very fact of a breach of our defences is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces,” Russian state TV showed the head of the Russian-installed occupation administration for Kharkiv province, Vitaly Ganchev, saying in an interview. Russian law bans all reporting of the conflict that diverges from official accounts.

Zelenskiy posted a video of Ukrainian soldiers announcing they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 km through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the advance and referred questions to the Russian military.

SUCCESS

Such rapid advances have largely been unheard of since Russia abandoned its assault on Kyiv in March, shifting the war mainly into a relentless grind along entrenched front lines.

Ukraine has not allowed independent journalists into the area to confirm the extent its advances, but Ukrainian news websites have shown pictures of troops cheering from armoured vehicles as they roar past street signs bearing the names of previously Russian-held towns.

“We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very, very encouraging,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference with his Czech counterpart in Prague.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, a junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has relied on to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east.

Moscow has long used its firepower advantage to make slow advances by bombarding towns and villages. But that tactic depends on tonnes of ammunition a day reaching the front line by train from western Russia.