New Delhi: Over the last 24 hours, both CNN and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) have declared a likely Ukrainian victory at the key eastern city of Kharkiv, with Russia reportedly withdrawing fully.
“Ukraine’s General Staff said Friday that Russian forces ‘did not conduct offensive operations in the Kharkiv direction. The main efforts were focused on preventing the advance of our troops in the area of the settlement of Vesele’, another village less than an hour’s drive from Staryi Saltiv in normal times. The Ukrainians have taken back a number of villages in this area east of Kharkiv,” CNN reported.
“The Russian command is also likely prioritising the withdrawal of Russian troops over that of its proxies. A Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) serviceman said that the Russian border patrol on the Ukrainian-Russian border along the highway to Belgorod refused to let his battalion, withdrawn from around Kharkiv City, into Russia for two days,” the ISW said, citing a series of tweets.
However, areas around Luhansk, north of Donetsk and in Mariupol continued to be the most intense fighting zones Friday, with Ukraine’s evacuation attempts at Mariupol reportedly ongoing.
An independent mapper of the war has also claimed that Russia has captured Oleksandropillia, a small town north of Popasana, located 100km west of Luhansk near the Luhansk Oblast’s border with Donetsk Oblast.
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