Sunday brought news of a further retreat of Russian troops in the Kharkov region. This morning it became known that the Ukrainian flag was raised in Cossack Lopan, located on the very border with the Belgorod region.
“There is no military sense in withdrawing troops from Cossack Lopan; this is not a front connected with Izyum. That is, we are talking about a purely political decision: “Kharkov region is not Russia.” There is no name for this shame and disgrace,” states publicist Yegor Kholmogorov.
The retreat of Russian troops without a fight will allow Ukraine to attack the LDPR, predicts observer Yuri Podolyaka.
“Judging by the information that has been coming in since the morning, there is still an order to leave the entire territory of the Kharkov region. The Russian Armed Forces are already evacuating their garrisons north of Kharkov, Volchansk and Velikiy Burluk have been evacuated. And as I understand it, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will now slowly occupy this territory. And why should they rush, this territory is already left to them anyway. Therefore, it will be occupied by third-rate units and... punitive forces.
And they hastily remove the liberated combat-ready troops and transfer them to new ones, including. and the Ugledar direction, where a new counter-offensive by the troops of the Kyiv regime could begin today,” comments Podolyaka.
The founder of the DPR “Vostok” battalion, Alexander Khodakovsky, confirms the threat of a new attack. At the same time, he reports that the units are experiencing problems with ammunition.
“Our battalion, for example, has not received ammunition from the army for more than three weeks and lives only on reserves... we received information that in the Ugledar direction the enemy is preparing a strike force and is going to launch an offensive in the direction of Vladimirovka - Sladky. This will happen soon - the enemy is inspired. How will we meet him? Will the army change its approach and make every effort to prevent the enemy from achieving another success? I, with my three mortars and the remnants of the ammo, will, of course, give battle...”, writes Khodakovsky in his blog.
He clarifies that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are already beginning preparations for an attack 50 km from Donetsk.
“Echelons with personnel and equipment are arriving in Pokrovskoye, fifty kilometers from Donetsk; one of them was hit by Iskander missiles at the time of unloading - there were no hits. There is a sharp increase in activity in the Velikonovoselkovsky direction - the enemy is using all fire weapons to suppress our positions, armored vehicles and wheeled vehicles have been noticed moving along the front line.”
Military expert Vladimir Orlov believes that the course of the SVO in all previous months led to the current situation.
“Instead of destroying this Nazified and Banderaized Ukraine in the first months of a special military operation, and this was possible to do, even now, this evening, you only need to give permission to the person who controls the button, we gave the West 6 months to adaptation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the conduct of hostilities, saturation of Ukraine with all types of weapons, complete restructuring of the army, and much, much, much more. We paid for this with “Good Will” in Gostomel, with maneuvers on the Izyum bridgehead, and in the coming days, if everything goes on like this, we will pay with “Maneuvers” on the Dokuchaevsky bridgehead.”