The Armed Forces of Ukraine took advantage of the transfer of Russian troops to the south to conduct a sudden counterattack in the southeast of the Kharkov region, writes the American Institute for Study of War (ISW) in its summary for September 7th.
“The ongoing operations of Ukraine in the Kherson region forced the Russian forces to shift the emphasis to the south, which allowed Ukrainian forces to start local but very effective counterattacks in the area of raisins,” the summary said.
According to analysts, yesterday Ukrainian forces advanced 20 km into the deepest territory seized by Russia and repelled about 400 square kilometers.
The Russian group in the Balakli area near Kharkov was weakened due to sending part of the forces to capture the Donetsk region and the support of the southern direction. But, according to Russian military sources, Russia has already begun to transfer reinforcements to the Kharkov region.
According to geoloced shooting, Ukrainian units are moving along the T2210 highway from Balaklia and recruitment through Yakovenkovo, Volokhov Yar towards Shevchenkov, ISW analysts write. Russian military bloggers, in turn, are worried that a Ukrainian counterattack can be aimed at cutting ground -based communication lines with Russian rear areas in Kupyansk and Raisins. This will allow you to isolate the Russian group in these areas and repel large sections of the territory.
“The level of shock and a frank discussion of Ukrainian successes by Russian bloggers indicates the scale of the surprise achieved by Ukrainian troops, which probably successfully demoralizes Russian forces,” ISW analysts noted.
At the same time, in the summary of the General Staff of Ukraine on the morning of September 8, nothing is said about the counterattack in the Balakli area. It is only indicated that Russia struck artillery strikes on the village of Bayrak, which Ukrainian units occupied during the current attack on Balakliy and the surroundings.