Ukrainian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region have retaken portions of Russian-held territory there as a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south has drained some of Moscow's resources in the area, according to a report released on Wednesday.
Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region are “likely exploiting Russian force reallocation” to areas near the occupied city of Kherson in the south “to conduct an opportunistic yet highly effective counteroffensive” in the province, Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said.
Ukrainian forces likely used “tactical surprise” to advance at least 12 miles (20 kilometres) into Russian-held territory in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday, recapturing approximately 155 square miles (400 square kilometers) of ground, the report said.
Vitaly Ganchev, the Moscow-backed mayor of the town of Kupiansk in a Russian-occupied area of the Kharkiv region, said on Thursday that authorities had begun evacuating women and children from the town and nearby areas because of relentless Ukrainian shelling.
In his nightly video address on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also reported success in the Kharkiv region but didn't provide details on its scope.
“This week we have good news from the Kharkiv region. You have probably already seen reports about the activity of Ukrainian defenders, and I think every citizen feels proud of our warriors,” Zelensky said.
The gains came as Ukraine continued to mount a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region, where the Ukrainian military is trying to retake territory from the Russians and has claimed the recapture of an unspecified number of towns.
Ukraine's ongoing operations near Kherson have forced Russian forces to shift their focus to the south, the Institute for the Study of War report said, enabling Ukrainian forces to launch localised but highly effective counterattacks near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.
Zelensky's presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, also spoke of Ukrainian gains near Kharkiv on late Wednesday, saying they would help disrupt supplies to Russian forces in the area and potentially lead to their encirclement.
Meanwhile, tensions continued to simmer around Europe's largest nuclear power plant where Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of threatening a nuclear disaster by shelling near the facility.
The towns of Nikopol and Marhanets, which face the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant across the Dnieper river, had come under Russian shelling overnight that left apartment buildings, a school, some industrial facilities and power lines damaged, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk province.
