Offensive in Ukraine: "For the moment, it remains a limited victory"

A damaged church in Izium, in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

AFP - JUAN BARRETO

Text by: RFI Follow

3 mins

Ukraine in the past 24 hours has announced a new round of military successes in the Karkhiv region, saying it has reached the Russian border and regained control over 6,000 square kilometers of its occupied territory.

This lightning offensive put the Russian army in great difficulty.

What is Kyiv's strategy?

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In war schools, strategists call this a “deception operation”.

The major Ukrainian

was expected in the south, in the Kherson region, but it was in the east, in Kharkiv, that they struck, decrypts

, in charge of defense issues at RFI.

The surprise effect fully worked: Russian military intelligence did not see the blow coming.

Thanks to the equipment provided by Western countries, the Ukrainian forces managed to rout the enemy army, and could be tempted to push their advantage to the Sea of ​​Azov.

This is what

, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) believes.

Given the incredible state of disorganization of the Russian army, will they try to cut off the Russian military presence in Ukraine from the Zaporizhia region?

An offensive that could join Mariupol, indeed.

It's still too early to say if it's a decisive victory for now.

It is impressive, but the more Russia will concentrate on a restricted territory, the greater the resistance of the Russian army will be.

For now, it remains a limited victory.

For there to be a military victory, the army would have to collapse in Kherson as well.

But so far the Russian army has not collapsed.

The Russian general staff says it has ordered its troops to redeploy in the Donetsk region, pending reinforcements.

Reinforcements arriving sparingly.

Moscow has lost a third of the manpower initially engaged at the start, and has not yet opted for general mobilization, the only way to make up for its losses.

►Read again: What is the amount of military aid provided to Ukraine?

“The morale of the troops is at its highest”

The Kharkiv region, part of which had been occupied for months by the Russian army, is therefore almost entirely taken over by the Ukrainians.

In several localities the Russians retreated, leaving much material behind.

These successes achieved in recent days add optimism to the ranks of the Ukrainian military.

Our special envoys

and

met a National Guard military doctor in Kharkiv, who explains this.

If before, we felt a certain fatigue in our ranks – it was rather difficult –, since we were given the order to go on the offensive, the morale of the troops is today at its highest.

We are ready to give all our strength, all our means to go all the way.

We won't stop until they leave our territory.

We are ready to sacrifice our sleep, to spend this time in combat, to hasten our victory, because Kharkiv is still being bombarded, daily, repeatedly.

No one ever knows where those rockets are going to land, who is going to die today, a child, an elderly person or an adult.

Personally, I still expect provocations from them.

They will continue for some time to march their artillery and fire.

In recent days, Russian missiles have targeted infrastructure, including power plants, plunging several regions into darkness.

Ukraine is asking for air defense systems to protect its infrastructure.

►Read also: Headlines: spectacular Ukrainian counter-offensive, a turning point in the war with Russia?

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