Victory Chronicles
-DAY 201

Above:  Ukrainian troops raised flags in freshly liberated towns across Kharkiv last week.  Photos via Euractiv, Ukranews, Guardian, Japan Times

Below:  Last week’s counteroffensive routed the enemy out of Kharkiv west of the Oskil River. Map via New York Times

• This week caps a week of the legendary Ukrainian Kharkiv counteroffensive that pushed the enemy out of Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oksii River.  The whole world is jaw-dropped at Ukraine’s bravery, skill and determination to drive a superior – in terms of sheer numbers – enemy from its sovereign land. Ukrainian forces reportedly advanced at breakneck speed, often with “no ru troops in sight” as the enemy broke and fled.
• In what analysts are calling a possible turning point in the war, Ukrainian troops are thought to have retaken 3,000 square km (1,158 square miles) of land in Kharkiv oblast since Wednesday including critical supply nodes for enemy troops in  northeastern Ukraine.

Above: Ukrainian forces met little resistance with fleeing enemy troops abandoning millions of dollars worth of equipment and artillery.  Ukrainians have dubbed it the “russian lend-lease program”. Images via General Staff and Guardian

Above: Fires rage after enemy rockets hit Kharkiv Thermal Power Plant Sunday. The enemy is retaliating the only way that it can, by bombing civilian infrastructure.  They sent missiles on to heating infrastructure in Kharkiv, Sumy and Donetsk Oblasts with the aim of causing as much civilian suffering as possible as temperatures fall. Photo via the Guardian

• According to the General Staff, “Over the past day, the enemy launched 18 missiles and 39 air strikes on military and civilian objects on the territory of Ukraine. More than 30 settlements were affected, in particular, Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivka, Dnipro, Pavlohrad, and Velykomykhayilivka.
• As reported in the Guardian, “Part of the special operation involved rooting out informants in Ukrainian-controlled parts of Kharkiv to stop them passing information about Ukraine’s preparations to the Russians…The [informants] were almost completely cleaned up. They mostly comprised normal Ukrainian civilians but there were some Russian agents undercover as Ukrainian civilians…The Russians had no idea what was going on.”

Above: Map shows front on the ru border after the weekend counteroffensive “These black dots represent the firing positions of the Russian BM-30 Smerch long-range MRLS that have fired on Kharkiv over the past seven months.” Map via Benjamin Pittet

Below: Civilian infrastructure damaged and destroyed by ru rockets in Kharkiv area since beginning of invasion. Map via MapHub

Above: A large ammo depot near Soloti, ru, is 30 km from liberated territory at ru border. Ten kilometers away is a large military base in Kiriush, Belgorod.  Map via Google Maps

Below: Satellite image of the large ru military base in Biriush, Belgorod Oblast, 10 km from Ukraine-occupied border.  Photo via Benjamin Pittet

Above: Ukrainian troops raise the flag in Vysokopillya, Kherson, 81 kilometers north of the Nova Kakhovka hydropower dam on the Dnipro River.  Photo via CNN

• Ukrainian special forces called the hype surrounding the start of a major counteroffensive in the south a disinformation campaign designed to draw enemy resources to the south, away from Kharkiv.
• “[The enemy] thought it would be in the south and moved their equipment. Then, instead of the south, the offensive happened where they least expected, and this caused them to panic and flee.” said Taras Berezovets, a former national security adviser turned press officer for the Bohun brigade of Ukraine’s special forces.
• Ukrainian psyops around Kherson doesn’t mean that the southern front is quiet. According to the General Staff, AFU operations in the Kherson vector destroyed 85% of the ru 810th marine brigade out of Sevastopol. On ru forces in general, “The rest of the servicemen have an extremely low morale and psychological state, they massively refuse to return to the combat zone.”