Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack near the Russian-controlled city of Izium in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said on Saturday.
After Russian forces were unable to reach the capital, Kiev, from the north in the first weeks of the war, they focused most of their firepower on the Donbass in the “second phase” of their invasion, announced on 19 April.
But Ukraine is reclaiming territory in the northeast, driving Russia away from Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv. Maintaining pressure on Izium and Russia’s supply lines will make it harder for Moscow to encircle Ukrainian troops on the eastern front of the Donbass.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also said complex negotiations are underway to find a way to evacuate large numbers of wounded soldiers from a besieged steel mill in the port of Mariupol in exchange for the release of Russian prisoners of war.
Mariupol, the scene of the biggest conflict of the war that has lasted for nearly three months, is now in Russian hands, but despite weeks of heavy Russian bombardment, hundreds of Ukrainians are still defending the Azovstal steelworks.
Western military analysts did not expect such fierce resistance from Ukraine when Russian President Vladimir Putin and his generals launched the invasion on February 24.
Commenting on the latest developments in eastern Ukraine, regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said in his comments on social media: “The most tense place remains the Izium direction.”
“There, our armed forces counterattacked. The enemy is retreating on some fronts and this is a result of the character of our armed forces,” he said.
source: Noticias
