Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov said in a briefing that Ukrainian armed forces had advanced up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) into Russian lines and that “the total area returned to Ukrainian control in the Kharkiv and Pivdennyi Buh directions is more than 700 square kilometers.” . . Gromov said Ukrainian troops had advanced up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) on the Sloviansk front in the east and recaptured a settlement called Ozerne. This is the first time Kyiv has disclosed details of its latest counterattack since last week, so as not to jeopardize the operation. The general also singled out the role of Turkish-made Bayraktar drones. “Enemy infantry and motorized artillery units that are not protected by air defense systems become easy prey for our Bayraktars, whose number is constantly increasing, thanks to our volunteers,” he said. The announcement comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a previously unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday, pledging a major $2 billion military aid package for Ukraine and neighboring countries “most at risk of future Russian aggression.” The package would “enhance the security of Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including … many of our NATO allies as well as other regional security partners,” said a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Blinken’s arrival, which was not publicly expected until he landed, came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported “good news” from the front lines of the war. In a speech on Wednesday afternoon, Zelensky cited “highly successful strikes in areas where the occupiers are concentrated” and thanked Ukrainian artillery troops for what he said were successful strikes against Moscow’s forces in the south. On Wednesday, an official representing the Russian-controlled self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk confirmed that Ukraine had launched a surprise counter-attack in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and “encircled” Balakliia, an eastern town of 27,000 located between Kharkiv and Russian-held Izium. Unverified footage circulating on social media showed what appeared to be a Ukrainian soldier posing in front of an entrance sign for Balakliia. The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which closely monitors the fighting, said Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east had pushed Russian forces back to the north of the Siverskyi Donets and Serednya Balakliika rivers and that Kyiv had recaptured 400 square kilometers of land in the east of the Kharkiv region. It appeared that Ukrainian forces had also retaken Verbivka and that Russian forces may have destroyed bridges to prevent Ukrainian fighters from pursuing them, ISW said. “The deployment of Russian forces from Kharkiv and eastern Ukraine to southern Ukraine is likely to enable Ukrainian counterattacks of opportunity,” it said. The long-awaited counterattack comes at a critical moment in the conflict. After months in which Ukraine’s fate seemed sealed, with Moscow squeezing Ukraine into the Donbass and threatening to advance on Odesa, the recapture of territory by the Ukrainian armed forces appears to have boosted the morale of the people, who have waive a conflict that could last years. “Every success of our army in one direction or another changes the general situation on the entire front line in favor of Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “The harder it is for the occupiers, the more losses they have, the better the positions of our defenders will be in Donbass.” The Ukrainian counter-offensive in the east does not appear to have stopped Russian shelling of the city of Kharkiv. On Thursday, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov said two people were killed and five wounded by Russian shelling in the city’s industrial area. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, gave a detailed assessment of the war so far in rare public comments published on Wednesday and warned of Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, which would pose the risk of a “limited” nuclear conflict with other powers, according to an opinion piece attributed to him in Ukraine’s state news agency Ukrinform. Zaluzny said the “immediate threat” of possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia had a significant influence on the adoption of relevant decisions. “Another factor is the immediate threat of Russia using, under certain circumstances, tactical nuclear weapons,” he said. “The fighting on the territory of Ukraine has already shown how much the Russian Federation neglects the issues of global nuclear security even in a conventional war. It is hard to imagine that even nuclear strikes will allow Russia to break Ukraine’s will to resist. But the resulting threat to the whole of Europe cannot be ignored.” Fierce fighting raged Thursday in areas near the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine after Kyiv said it may have to shut down the plant to prevent a disaster. The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its daily briefing that a number of villages and communities near the plant were heavily shelled 24 hours into Thursday morning by “tanks, mortars, barrels and jet artillery”. The seizure of the nuclear plant has sparked fears of a nuclear holocaust as both sides trade blame for the bombing of the site. On Wednesday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, who was in Rome for a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, told La Repubblica newspaper that he was moved when he visited the plant. Asked what he thought of Vladimir Putin and Zelensky, who accused him of not saying who was to blame for the factory strikes, Grossi replied: “Being a judge, the referee between two contenders, is not my mandate. Indeed, if it were, it would negate my usefulness as a guarantor of the safety of the nuclear plant.”
