Russia will continue its invasion of Ukraine until all military objectives are met, the Kremlin has said, as it responded to Kyiv’s massive counteroffensive in the east, which has retaken more than 3,000 square kilometers of land.
The Russian military setback is the Kremlin’s biggest since it was forced to reverse plans to seize Ukraine’s capital and has prompted a growing wave of recriminations in Moscow over who is to blame.
President Vladimir Putin is fully informed about the relocation of Russian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. The Ministry of Defense has acknowledged that Russian troops were withdrawn from the Kharkiv region, but authorities have since avoided calling it a withdrawal.
“The president is in constant, 24-hour communication with the defense minister and all military commanders,” Peskov said.
Asked if Putin still trusted his military leadership, Peskov replied that the “special military operation” — the name Moscow gives to its invasion of Ukraine — will continue and “will continue until all the goals that are they initially established.”
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On Monday, Ukrainian troops worked to consolidate the gains they had made since the offensive east of Kharkiv was launched. In Izyum, a key logistics center where thousands of Russian troops had been stationed, Ukrainian soldiers hoisted the national flag over the central district government building in the main square.
Nataliya Humenyuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern operations command, said Monday that the country’s forces in the southern Kherson region, where Ukraine launched an earlier counteroffensive, had also liberated about 500 square kilometers of territory from the forces from Russia
Liberated towns include Visokopiylya, Novovoznesenske, Bilohirka, Sukhy Stavok and Myrolyubivka, he said.
Tensions have also risen over artillery attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Kyiv and Moscow blame on each other.
Later on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his late-night speech, suggested that the extent of territory retaken had increased again since earlier reports: “From the beginning of September until today, our soldiers have already have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, in the east and south,” he said. “The movement of our troops continues.”
In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, Putin warned of the possible “catastrophic consequences” of what he claimed was a Ukrainian bombing of the plant. Ukrainian officials say it is Russian forces that are striking the facility as a provocation.
Macron said Russia was responsible for tensions at the site and demanded the withdrawal of Moscow’s forces.
Russian media reports appeared to change after the rapid advances, which followed weeks of stagnation.
Over the weekend, anchors on Russian state television spoke of fierce fighting in the east, while pro-war journalists and bloggers wrote online posts about the defeat.
“Well, brothers and sisters. are you depressed Screaming?” state television reporter Andrey Medvedev wrote on Telegram on Saturday, as Russian troops withdrew from Izyum. “I know, I agree, it’s been a hard day. It’s very difficult, and it won’t be ‘last”.
Other journalists embedded with Russian troops live-streamed their experience of the withdrawal and warned leaders to learn some lessons from the defeat.
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“The army will definitely rise, there will be new victories,” wrote military journalist German Kulikovsky to his half a million subscribers.
“But! If no conclusions are drawn. . . in everything from infantry squad tactics to new weapon systems. . . then it will be difficult times not only for me and those involved in the special military operation, but for the whole of Russian society.”
Additional reporting by Ben Hall in London