Ukraine military recaptures occupied town as counteroffensive advances
After announcing an attack on the Russian-occupied city of Balakliya earlier this week, videos circulated on social media showing Ukrainian soldiers raising the blue and yellow flag and emotional civilians greeting them.
Taking control of Balakliya could offer the Ukrainians a strategic opportunity to push farther toward the occupied town of Izyum, which Russian forces have been using as a staging ground for their attacks throughout the eastern Donbas region.
On Friday, Russian state television made a rare acknowledgment of the Ukrainian advances when Vitaly Ganchev, the head of Russia’s administration in the occupied parts of Kharkiv, described them as occurring at a “very sharp and rapid” pace. Footage also showed what appeared to be Russian tanks heading toward Kharkiv in a bid to reinforce the area.
Pro-Kremlin military analysts on Friday also shared a map of Ukraine’s advances into the occupied territories, showing significant gains after Kyiv’s forces raised their flag again in Balakliya, a critical juncture in the Kharkiv area.
The surprise advance in Kharkiv is occurring alongside a Ukrainian offensive near the southern city of Kherson, where Ukrainian forces have recently launched an aggressive push to reclaim the strategic port city. The larger Kherson region helps form Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coveted land bridge to Crimea, the peninsula invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014.
The recent advances are offering a boost of optimism to Ukrainians, who hope the operations will put Moscow on the back foot and force them out of many occupied areas before winter. Zelensky repeatedly has articulated his hope of such gains, and in a visit to Kyiv on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged enduring support for Ukraine.
Still, Russia continues to control significant territory inside Ukraine and continues to showcase its capacity to launch strikes across the country.
Despite some Ukrainian successes in the region, Russian forces still struck Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Friday, blasting away one side of the Misto Hotel and Spa with a salvo of rockets. The strike also hit a nearby school and residential buildings, wounding 14 in all, including three children.
The city, which has come under repeated attack since February, is now split between a sense of normalcy and war. Rose beds are still carefully tended in the median of some streets near the city’s center, not far from where the buildings were badly…
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