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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hailed his troops for ‘liberating’ the important thing jap metropolis of Izyum within the Kharkiv area following a large-scale counteroffensive towards Russia because the jap area suffered ‘a complete blackout’ on Sunday.
In an tackle to the nation marking 200 days because the starting of Russia’s invasion, Zelenskyy on Sunday thanked Ukrainian forces who “liberated lots of of our cities and villages … and most lately Balaklia, Izyum and Kupiansk,” naming three essential hubs lately captured by Kyiv’s troops.
In the meantime, the embattled jap Ukraine area suffered energy blackouts and cuts in water provides on Sunday. The outages will probably have an effect on about 9 million individuals within the area, together with territory managed by Russia.
“There isn’t a electrical energy or water provide in a number of settlements. Emergency companies are working to manage fires on the websites that had been hit,” Oleg Synegubov, the governor of the Kharkiv area, stated in a press release on social media.
Comparable experiences got here within the night from the areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa.
The Ukrainian president pointed the finger of blame at Russia, accusing Moscow of intentionally hitting civilian infrastructure.
“A complete blackout within the Kharkiv and Donetsk areas, a partial one within the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy areas,” Zelenskyy stated in a press release on social media, blaming “Russian terrorists”.
“No army services,” he added. “The aim is to deprive individuals of sunshine and warmth.”
‘Fully darkish’
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reporting from Kharkiv stated there are “energy outages in 5 areas within the northeast and jap a part of the nation. What we’re listening to from officers is that the Russians have hit essential infrastructure; they’re not telling us what or the place, however this metropolis is in pitch-black.
“We had been on the streets when [the power outage] occurred and as we had been driving again to our location, all the pieces was fully darkish; there was not one gentle on. It was fairly an eery scene.”
Officers within the Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava areas stated shortly after the electrical energy lower bulletins that energy had been restored.
The Russian assaults had been additionally disrupting railways, with the nationwide prepare service saying delays all through the east together with the nation’s second-largest metropolis, Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s international ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko stated the Russian assaults had been an “act of desperation following Russia’s immense losses and retreat in jap Ukraine.”
The top of the Dnipropetrovsk area Dmytro Reznichenko stated: The Russians hit power infrastructure. They can’t settle for defeat on the battlefield,” he stated in a press release on-line.
AFP journalists within the Donetsk regional metropolis of Kramatorsk in the meantime confirmed the cuts had been additionally impacting one of many largest cities within the east nonetheless beneath Ukrainian management.
‘A strategic victory for Ukraine’
The blackout got here as Ukrainian forces claimed to have recaptured dozens of cities and villages in jap Ukraine forcing Russian troops to retreat. The pullback marked the largest battlefield success for Kyiv’s forces since they thwarted Russia’s try to seize the capital Kyiv at the beginning of the battle.
The official cause given for the withdrawal was a strategic “regrouping” of the items.
Within the worst defeat for Moscow’s forces since they had been repelled from the outskirts of the capital Kyiv in March, hundreds of Russian troopers left behind ammunition and tools as they fled town of Izyum, which they’d used as a logistics hub.
Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Sunday, criticised the Russian military’s efficiency over the weekend.
Ukrainian forces are pushing north within the Kharkiv area and advancing to its south and east, Ukraine’s military chief stated on Sunday.
Zelenskyy hailed the offensive as a possible breakthrough within the six-month-old battle, and stated the winter might see additional territorial positive aspects if Kyiv obtained extra highly effective weapons.
Observers have stated that Ukraine’s strategic positive aspects within the east have offered an “unwavering” worldwide neighborhood with proof of its forces’ capabilities.
“This can be a strategic victory for Ukraine – of far better significance than the defeat of the Russians in Kyiv in March,” Frank Ledwidge of the College of Portsmouth informed Al Jazeera.
He stated it was strategic as a result of it demonstrates that the Ukrainians can impose losses on the Russians.
“However it’s additionally an illustration of their expertise and mixed arms warfare, and bringing the gear and coaching they’ve had over the previous couple of months all collectively to take again an space of land that’s far better than the Russians have taken since April.”
“It’s very vital and it demonstrates the Ukrainians’ functionality with deception,” he added. “It’s an intelligence coup and it’s a exceptional show of Russian ineptitude, notably within the intelligence realm.”
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