KHARKIV: Ukrainian forces advanced their counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine Sunday, looking to take advantage of Russian troop withdrawals from the northeastern Kharkiv region in a retreat that may have changed the course of the nearly seven-month conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy derided the Russians in his nightly video address Saturday, saying, “The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back.”

On Sunday, he posted a video of Ukrainian soldiers hoisting the national flag over Chkalovsk, one of several towns they reclaimed from the Russians in the counteroffensive.

Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that Ukraine had reclaimed about 3,000 square kilometers from Moscow’s forces since the beginning of September. He said Ukrainian troops are now just 50 kilometers away from the border with Russia.

The battlefield advance marked the biggest Ukrainian success since early in the war when it thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s attack in the Kharkiv region seemed to surprise Moscow, which had moved many of its troops from the area to the south, where Kyiv had publicly announced a counteroffensive.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, in response to the Ukrainian gains, said Saturday the troops’ withdrawal from Izyum and other areas in the Kharkiv region was intended to strengthen Russian forces in the neighboring Donetsk region to the south.

But the retreat drew angry comments from Russian military bloggers and nationalist commentators, who characterized it as a major defeat and urged the Kremlin to bolster war efforts. They criticized Russian authorities for staging fireworks and other lavish festivities in Moscow that marked a city holiday Saturday.

In its assessment, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces have continued to make significant gains in the Kharkiv region.

(VOA)