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Krajina forces have taken so much territory that they have reached the border with Russia in a counterattack area, according to reports.
They pushed Vladimir Putin’s troops back to the border northeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the east.
Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleg Sinegubov told the Telegram news service that Ukrainian troops defending Kharkiv had reached the state border with Russia.
It was not immediately clear how many troops had reached the Russian border and where, and air raid sirens were still being heard in Kharkov early Monday.
His report was repeated by Iliya Ponomarenko, a defense reporter for The Kyiv Independent, who tweeted: “Okay, people, we have the first Ukrainian unit approaching the Russian border as part of the counter-offensive northeast of Kharkiv.
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Alexander Sherba, Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria until last year, tweeted a video that appears to show Ukrainian forces advancing on the border with Russia.
It read: “Mr. President, we have reached the state border of Ukraine with the enemy state. Mr. President, we have succeeded! ”
Ukraine counterattacked Russian forces on the Eastern Front on Monday with fighting near Kharkov after Western military agencies said Putin’s offensive in the Donbass region had stopped.
Adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry Vadim Denisenko said in television comments that the fighting near Kharkov was “our counter-offensive.”
“It can no longer be stopped … Thanks to that, we can go to the rear of the Russian forces,” he said.
The governor of the Luhansk region in Donbass, Sergei Gaidai, said the situation “remains difficult” as Russian forces try to take over the city of Severodonetsk.
He said leaders of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a territory in Luhansk controlled by Russian-backed separatists, had called for a general mobilization, adding that “either fight or be shot, there is no other choice”.
Fighting is raging around the city of Kherson in the south, and Russian missiles have hit residential areas in Nikolaev, the presidential office in Kyiv said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that Russia’s offensive in Donbas had stopped and Ukraine could win the war, a result few military analysts had predicted when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th.
Since then, Russian troops have suffered heavy losses as they have blown up cities and towns to ruins, killing thousands and sending more than six million refugees to neighboring countries. Russia denies attacking civilians.
Although Putin’s armed forces lost at least 15,000 troops, Ukrainian political and military leaders were prepared for new Russian offensives on Monday.
“We are preparing for new attempts by Russia to attack Donbass in order to somehow strengthen its movement in the south of Ukraine,” Vladimir Zelensky, the country’s president, said in an evening address.
He also stressed: “The occupiers still do not want to admit that they are at a dead end and their so-called ‘special operation’ has already gone bankrupt.”
The Joint Forces Task Force of Ukraine said its troops had repulsed 17 attacks on Sunday and destroyed 11 units of Russian equipment.
The command of the Ukrainian Air Force said that the Ukrainian forces shot down two helicopters, two cruise missiles and seven drones. .
Russia has continued to fire on civilian areas along the entire front line in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, shelling 23 villages and towns, the task force added, although not all of its allegations can be verified independently.
If Ukraine manages to withstand the pressure on Raisins and Russian supply lines, it will be more difficult for Moscow to encircle well-trained and well-trained Ukrainian troops in the Donbas.
The Ukrainian military also acknowledged the failures, saying Russian forces “continue to make progress” in several areas in the Donbas region.
In western Ukraine near Poland, missiles also destroyed military infrastructure on Saturday night and were fired into the Lviv region from the Black Sea, Ukrainian authorities said.
Another ten civilians were injured in the southern region of Nikolaev, the regional council said, without giving details.
Mr Putin has largely shifted his military campaign to the Donbass region, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk districts held by Moscow-backed separatists, following the failure of his initial invasion plan, which included capturing Kyiv within days.
While his forces are making some progress in the Donbass region, they are also losing ground in other areas and are thought to be significantly slower than planned.
In addition, there was no weakening on Sunday in Russia’s bombing of a steel plant in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainian fighters are being held for weeks after the city fell into Russian hands, the Ukrainian military said.
Brightly burning munitions were shown descending steel mills in a video posted by a pro-Russian separatist commander.
Zelensky said “very difficult and delicate negotiations” are under way to try to save the Ukrainians in Mariupol and Azovstal.
In the port city, some residents ate and talked in front of their burned-out apartment building, which was shelled and set on fire in early April.
“I was in the kitchen when the smoke came,” said a resident named Natalia. “I started carrying my things, saving what I could.
She said three neighbors were killed in the battle.
“We could not bury them because of the shelling. Every day we put a person in a grave, but we could not cover him with soil because of the shelling.
In northern Ukraine, Putin’s key ally, President Alexander Lukashenko, has ordered Belarus’ special operations forces to be stationed on Ukraine’s border to try to stop its relocation to Donbass, British defense officials said on Monday.
They believe Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator”, is seeking to play a “balancing” game in support of the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine, while avoiding the blows of Western sanctions from his economy.
They stressed that while Belarusian forces did not take part in the invasion, its territory was used to launch Russian air and missile strikes.
In its latest intelligence update, the London Ministry of Defense said: “Following the exercises earlier this month, Belarus announced the deployment of special operations forces on its border with Ukraine, as well as air defense, artillery and missile units at western test sites. On the side.
“The presence of Belarusian forces near the border is likely to fix Ukrainian troops so that they cannot deploy in support of operations in Donbas.
It added: “Despite early speculation, Belarusian forces have so far not been directly involved in the conflict.
“However, Belarusian territory was used as a starting point for Russia’s initial offensive against Kyiv and Chernigov. Russia has also launched air strikes and missile strikes from Belarus.
“Belarusian President Lukashenko is likely to balance support for the Russian invasion with a desire to avoid direct military involvement at the risk of Western sanctions, Ukrainian revenge and possible discontent in the Belarusian military.
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