Offensive In Kharkiv Region: Invaders Knocked Out To Seversky Donets Left Bank
- 7.09.2022, 11:46
Ukrainian troops achieved significant success near Balakliya.
Ukrainian troops apparently attacked the Russian-occupied city of Balakliya, Kharkiv region, and made some progress.
According to the report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrainian forces conducted a counterattack in Kharkiv Oblast near Balakliya that likely drove Russian forces back to the left bank (north side) of the Severskyi Donets and Serednya Balakliya rivers on September 6.
According to the analysts of the Institute for the Study of War, the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Balakliya became possible due to the transfer of Russian forces from the Kharkiv region to the Kherson region (where the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also underway). It is also reported that Russian troops have withdrawn from checkpoints 6 km west of Balakliya.
This has also been reported by The Guardian with a reference to the propagandistic media of the so-called DPR.
“Today, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, after a lengthy artillery barrage … launched an offensive against Balakliya,” so-called Deputy Information Minister of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” Daniil Bessonov, quoted by the Russian media, said on Telegram on Tuesday.
Balakliya, a pre-war population center of 27,000, is located between Kharkiv and Russian-controlled Izyum, a city with a major rail junction that Moscow uses to supply its troops.
Russian propaganda media write about the operational encirclement of Balakliya
Bessonov added that if the city was lost, the Russian forces in Izyum would become vulnerable on their northwestern flank.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine concentrated massive fire on the mobile groups of the “DPR”, which took up defensive positions in the nearby forests. Currently, Balakliya is in operational encirclement, and in the zone of fire of Ukrainian artillery. All approaches are blocked by fire.
Pro-Russian channels also report that militants of the Samara SOBR were surrounded. In general, the mood in the Russian segment of the Internet about the situation in the Kharkiv region is close to hysteria.
Representatives of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian government have not yet officially commented on the situation in the Kharkiv region, indicating the names of specific settlements.
In an evening address on September 6, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted that a tough confrontation continues almost along the entire front line in 1,300 km of active hostilities.
“And this is simply unfair when a lot is said about certain sectors of the front, while others seem to be forgotten. Although our warriors in many areas are doing an absolutely great job, they are absolute heroes. In the Donbas, and in the Kharkiv region, and in the Zaporizhzhia region, and in the south, and in the border regions of the north and east of the country,” the head of state stressed.
On the Deep State map, updated at 01:05 on September 7, Balakliya is marked red as the territory controlled by the occupying forces of the Russian Federation, Verbivka and the surroundings of Yakovenkove are marked as a “gray zone”.
According to the operational map, battles were recorded in the areas of Verbivka and Yakovenkove.
Serhiy Gaidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, told Ukrainian television, without specifying the location, that “there is a counterattack going on and... our forces are having some success. Let's stop on this.”
The mayor's office of the temporarily occupied city of Kupyansk, Kharkiv region, for the first time since March, appealed to local residents. On the page of the city council, they reported that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already close”, and called on the townspeople to prepare shelter and strategic food supplies.