Russian Troops Flee From Ukrainian Advance in Key Eastern Town

(Social media photos shows Ukrainian troops with hidden identity posing at the entrance of the town of Balakliya.)

Thousands of Russian troops of various units have been routed and forced to flee by a surprise Ukrainian attack in the east of Ukraine.

This allows Ukrainian defenders to enter the town of Balakliya and threaten the supplies for the entire Russian contingent in the southeastern region of Donbas.

Russians Pummeled Along 800-mile Front

At the end of August, the Ukrainian command announced its first major offensive to liberate the Russian-occupied parts of the country.

While the Ukrainians have scored a small advance there and continued to pound the Russians, Tuesday saw an unexpected Ukrainian push in the Kharkiv region in the east.

As Ukrainians resisted the invaders ferociously aided by western military supplies, the war in Ukraine already cost Russia a stupefying amount of lost troops and military equipment.

(Social media photos shows Ukrainian troops with hidden identity posing at the entrance of the town of Balakliya.)

Where is the Main Ukrainian Offensive, Really?

There have been conflicting reports about the surprise Ukrainian offensive in the eastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday.

Some are saying that Balakliya, a town of 30,000 people, has been fully liberated. Others claimed Ukrainians entered the town and are engaged in street-to-street combat with the retreating Russians.

However, all reports claim Russians got routed and fled in the surprise push by the defenders of Ukraine. The fleeing units included both regular Russian military units and units from the Russian proxies mobilized from the Donbas region.

Ukrainian presidential office advisor Alexey Arestovych said on YouTube that the entire Russian line defending the western outskirts of Balakliya fled in chaos.

The report assumed the Ukrainian push on Kherson may have been a cover for the offensive in the Kharkiv region.

It may have deluded Putin’s commanders who spent the past few weeks transferring massive numbers of troops and equipment from the eastern parts of the front to the southern.

The report also quoted a Russian military blogger and volunteer fighter from St. Petersburg, Anatoly Dremov, who wrote the Kherson offensive was a Ukrainian diversion. The main counterattack is in the Kharkiv region.

He declared further that the entire “eastern” front south of Kharkiv has now “come alive.”

As a result of this, there are now severe battles raging around Izyum. This is one of the major Ukrainian transport hubs in the far east of the country that was occupied by the Russians in the early weeks of the invasion.

A report by CNN said that Balakliya is still being defended by Russian proxies.

At the same time, troops from the Russian national guard, the Rosgvardiya (which is more akin to riot police than a proper military force), and the remaining Russian forces there now face a possible encirclement.

This article appeared in MorningPress and has been published here with permission.

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