EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Ukrainian forces have vowed to free all of its territories, calling on the West to speed up deliveries of weapons to back the dramatic advance.
Since Moscow abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, marking its worst defeat since the early days of the war, Ukrainian troops have recaptured dozens of towns in a stunning shift in battleground momentum.
In Washington, the White House said the United States is likely to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine in “coming days”.
Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told CNA’s Asia First on Wednesday (Sep 14) that the US needs to consider taking off some of the limitations that they have put on military aid for Ukraine, especially on missile systems.
“The White House has been unwilling to send medium- and long-range rockets, and that’s really what Ukraine needs. They also need airplanes and tanks, and they haven’t been able to get those from Washington” said Haring. “Ukraine needs those weapon systems now so that it can end the war on its terms.”
Speaking in the central square of Balakliia, a crucial military supply hub taken by Ukrainian forces late last week, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said 150,000 people had been liberated from Russian rule in the area.
Ukrainian flags had been raised and a large crowd gathered to receive bundles of humanitarian aid. A shopping centre had been destroyed but many buildings remained intact, with shops closed and boarded up.
The aim is to liberate the Kharkiv region and beyond – all the territories occupied by the Russian Federation,” she said on the road to Balakliia, which lies 74km southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
Russian forces still control about a fifth of Ukraine in the south and east, but Kyiv is now on the offensive in both areas.
With the recapture of nearly all of Kharkiv province, the Ukrainian advance could soon spread into neighbouring Luhansk and Donetsk, where Russia has concentrated its forces for months to expand territory held by separatists since 2014.
The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai, said troops had already retaken the city of Lyman in northern Donetsk. He identified Svatove in Luhansk further east as the likely next battle front. Reuters could not verify the reports.
A senior US military official said Russia had largely ceded territory near Kharkiv in the northeast and pulled many of its troops back over the border.
A video from Ukraine’s border guard service showed what it said were Ukrainian troops liberating the town of Vovchansk near the Russian border, burning down flags and tearing down a poster saying “We are one with Russia”.
Zelensky said Ukraine had recaptured roughly 6,000 square km of territory, double the area officials had cited on Sunday.
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