KYIV: Ukraine claimed new gains in its counteroffensive against Russian forces as a Russian-appointed administrator for the eastern Kharkiv region acknowledged that Kyiv had achieved a “substantial victory.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Friday that Ukrainian forces had retaken more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region.

“We are gradually taking control over more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protection for our people,” Zelenskyy said.

Earlier in the day, Russian state television broadcast an interview with the Russian-appointed administrator for Kharkiv, Vitaliy Hanchev, who said, “The situation is rather serious now. The very fact there was a breach of our defenses is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces.”

The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and it is one of the biggest shifts in the war’s momentum since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital, Kyiv, in March.

Western military analysts say the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway that Moscow has relied on to sustain its force in eastern Ukraine and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said Ukrainian forces were within just 15 kilometers of Kupiansk, a junction for the railway lines that Moscow has been using.

Zelenskyy posted a video earlier in the week of Ukrainian soldiers announcing they had captured the eastern town of Balakliya, along a stretch of front south of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 kilometers through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise.

(VOA)