Russia redeploys troops out of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region

MoscowRussian troops are withdrawing from key areas of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, including the strategically important city of Izyum, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday, as Kiev’s counteroffensive to recapture territory gains momentum.Russian troops are also to withdraw from the city of Balakliya, which the Ukrainians had reported as having liberated last week.The Russian Defence Ministry said the regrouping is intended to strengthen units in the neighbouring Donetsk region.The Ukrainian side said earlier in the day that it had made major gains in Kharkiv.The domestic intelligence service SBU published photos on Telegram on Saturday apparently showing Ukrainian units in the strategically important town of Kupyansk, which has up until now been occupied by Russian troops.“We will liberate our country down to the last centimetre,” the SBU wrote.Ukrainian media also published a photo on Saturday morning purporting to show several soldiers holding a Ukrainian flag in the centre of Kupyansk.Because of its direct railway connection to Russia, the town in the north-eastern Kharkiv region is important as a transport hub for supplying Russian troops.According to a recent British intelligence assessment, some of the Ukrainian forces had advanced “up to 50 kilometres into previously Russian-held territory” in the south of the Kharkiv region.Russian forces were under pressure both on the northern and southern flanks of the conflict, it said.On Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian troops had recaptured more than 30 towns and villages in Kharkiv.The war in Ukraine has been raging since the Russian invasion on February 24. Ukraine has since then been supplied with billions of dollars in military aid by Western countries.Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock promised Ukraine help with removing mines from conflict zones in her second visit to the country since the Russian invasion in February.Her presence in the country is intended to show “that we will continue to stand by Ukraine as long as it takes – with the delivery of weapons, as well as humanitarian and financial support,” Baerbock said on Saturday.During a visit to a minefield in Velyka Dymerka near Kiev, Baerbock said de-mining was important to make the lives of people safer in the contested areas.

– Ranjith Perera –