Western defense officials and analysts on Saturday said they believed Ukraine had punched through Russian front lines south of the country's second-largest city, taking thousands of square miles of territory and threatening to cut off Russian supply lines.
The British Defense Ministry in an online briefing said it believed the Ukrainians had advanced as much as 50 kilometers in the advance south of Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine.
An image circulated on social media Saturday appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers in front of a main government building in Kupiansk, some 73 kilometers north of Izyum. A Washington-based think tank likewise referenced sweeping Ukrainian gains on Saturday, estimating that Kyiv has seized around 2,500 square kilometers in its northeastern breakthrough.
The fighting in the east comes amid an ongoing offensive around Kherson in southern Ukraine. Analysts suggest Russia may have taken soldiers from the east to reinforce around Kherson, offering the Ukrainians the opportunity to strike a weakened front line. Officials in Kyiv have for weeks been tight-lipped about their plans for a counter-offensive to retake territory overrun by Russia early in the war, calling on local residents to refrain from sharing information on social media for fear of compromising the ongoing operation.Elsewhere, Ukrainian emergency services reported that a civilian was killed in a Russian missile strike in the Kharkiv region overnight.
Syniehubov said in a Telegram post that five civilians were hospitalized in the Izyum district, while nine others suffered injuries elsewhere in the region.
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