Russia-Ukraine updates: Kyiv forces within 50km of border

Ukrainian officials have accused retreating Russian forces of launching retaliatory attacks on civilian infrastructure, including a thermal power station in Kharkiv, that the authorities in Kyiv said caused widespread blackouts.

“No military facilities, the goal is to deprive people of light & heat,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter about the attacks.

Moscow denies its forces deliberately target civilians.

Zelenskyy confirmed that Russian attacks caused a total blackout in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, and partial blackouts in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.

“They are unable to reconcile themselves to defeats on the battlefield,” Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted an image on Telegram of a power station on fire but added power had been restored in some regions.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov described attacks on infrastructure as “cynical revenge” for the success of Ukrainian troops at the front, particularly in Kharkiv.

Russian forces have launched a total of 11 missiles towards the eastern regions of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force announced in a tweet on Sunday night.

Observers have said that Ukraine’s strategic gains in the east have provided an “unwavering” or “doubtful” international community with evidence of its forces’ capabilities.

“This is a strategic victory for Ukraine – of far greater significance than the defeat of the Russians in Kyiv in March,” said Frank Ledwidge of the University of Portsmouth.

He told Al Jazeera that it was strategic because it demonstrates that the Ukrainians can impose losses on the Russians.

“But it’s also a demonstration of their skills and combined arms warfare, and bringing the gear and training they’ve had over the last few months all together to take back an area of land that’s far greater than the Russians have taken since April.”

“It’s very significant and it demonstrates the Ukrainians’ capability with deception,” he added. “It’s an intelligence coup and it’s a remarkable display of Russian ineptitude, particularly in the intelligence realm.”

Officials in east Ukraine on Sunday blamed Russian attacks on key facilities for widespread blackouts that hit large areas of the country where Kyiv’s forces have been making gains in a counteroffensive.

The governor of the eastern Kharkiv region said Russian attacks on “critical infrastructure” had disrupted electricity and water supplies, while the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region said Moscow’s forces had “hit energy infrastructure” in retaliation for “defeat on the battlefield”.

Ukraine’s defence ministry has posted this tweet, after the 130th battalion made it to Hoptivka checkpoint, near the Russian border.

Moscow’s forces have made a major withdrawal from Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, according to a military map presented by the Russian defence ministry on Sunday.

Russia controlled just a sliver of territory in the region’s east, behind the Oskil river, the map showed.

It was part of a ministry video of its daily briefing, the AFP news agency reported.

An earlier map on Saturday showed Russia occupying much more territory in the region.

Ukraine says it has reclaimed swathes of land over the last two days as part of a lightning counteroffensive, pushing back Russia’s military from strategic holdouts in the east.

The Russian military made the surprise announcement Saturday that it was “regrouping” its forces south from Kharkiv to the Donetsk region to focus its military efforts there.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya and Putin ally whose troops have been at the forefront of the war in Ukraine, has conceded that the campaign was not going to plan.

In an 11-minute-long audio message posted on Telegram Kadyrov said: “If today or tomorrow changes are not made in the conduct of the special military operation, I will be forced to go to the country’s leadership to explain to them the situation on the ground.”

The criticism came after the Russian army’s leadership appeared to be caught off-guard by Ukraine’s fightback against its invasion in the northeast.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said many on pro-Russian Telegram channels are saying this is a defeat, “and one high-profile military analyst said that their troops are in an operational crisis and that the Ukrainians have seized the initiative in this war”.

Russia has been nearly silent about its soldiers being forced to abandon their main bastion in northeastern Ukraine.

The swift fall of Izyum in Kharkiv province was Russia’s worst military defeat since its troops were forced back from Kyiv in March, Reuters reported.

Moscow has almost been totally silent about the defeat – not offering any explanation for what had taken place in northeastern Ukraine.

“We take pride in Moscow, and love this city with its majestic antiquity and its modern and dynamic pace of life, the charm of its cosy parks, lanes and streets and abundance of business and cultural events,” Putin told citizens on Moscow Day, according to a Kremlin transcript of his message.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Speaking by phone, the two leaders expressed readiness for a “non-politicised interaction” on the matter with the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the statement published on the Kremlin’s website.

The UK has dismissed as untrue Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that only a fraction of grain exported from Ukraine under an international deal was going to poor countries.

Last week, Putin asserted that only two of 87 ships, carrying 60,000 tonnes of products, had gone to poor countries. The deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, took effect last month.

Quoting UN figures, the British Defence Ministry said about 30 percent of grains exported under the deal has been supplied to low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Russia is pursuing a deliberate misinformation strategy as it seeks to deflect blame for food insecurity issues, discredit Ukraine and minimise opposition to its invasion, the ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.

Xi Jinping will leave China this week for the first time in more than two years for a trip to Central Asia where he will meet Vladimir Putin.

Xi is due on a state visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday and will then meet Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

The meeting will give President Xi an opportunity to underscore his clout while Putin can demonstrate Russia’s tilt towards Asia; both leaders can show their opposition to the United States just as the West seeks to punish Russia for the Ukraine war.

France’s transport minister has said he will sign an agreement with Romania to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries, including to the Mediterranean.

Ukraine’s grain exports have slumped since the start of the war because its Black Sea ports, a key route for shipments, were closed off, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.

Romania, the European Union’s second-largest exporter of wheat to non-EU countries, including Egypt, after France and the largest in maize (corn), has been one of the alternative routes used to export Ukrainian grain.

Leading politicians in Germany’s governing coalition have called for more support for the Ukrainian military offensive against Russian troops that is currently gaining momentum in parts of the country.

“Germany must immediately play its part in Ukraine’s successes and supply protected vehicles – the Marder infantry fighting vehicle and the Leopard 2 main battle tank,” the chairwoman of the defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, told the dpa news agency.

Germany must assume a “leading role in Europe in the fight for democracy in peace and freedom”, said the politician of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), which is the junior partner in the German coalition, which also includes the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens.

“Certainly this is not the time for dithering and hesitation,” she said. “The current military advance of the Ukrainian army and the first recaptured territories in the east of the country speak for Ukraine’s fighting strength and unconditional will to take back its invaded country.”

SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth also spoke out in favour of quickly supporting the country with new weapons.

A backup power line to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine has been restored, providing it with the external electricity it needs to cool its reactors, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.

“After yesterday’s restoration of power line … #ZNPP operator this morning shut down its last operating reactor, which over past week had been providing ZNPP w/ required power after it was disconnected from grid,” the IAEA said on Twitter.

“This power can now come from the grid instead.”

France’s transport minister has said he would sign an agreement with Romania to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries, including to the Mediterranean.

“Tomorrow, I will sign an accord with Romania that will allow Ukraine to get even more grains out … towards Europe and developing countries, notably in the Mediterranean [countries] which need it for food,” Clement Beaune told LCI television, adding that the deal covered exports by land, sea and river.

Russian forces are hitting Ukrainian army positions in the Kharkiv region with precision strikes, Russian news agencies have quoted the country’s defence ministry as saying.

The report could not immediately be verified.

The Ukrainian armed forces have shared a video showing a soldier hoisting the country’s flag above a Kharkiv region settlement which it says was recently taken back from Russian forces.

Shared by numerous official accounts and outlets, including by President Zelenskyy, the video purports to show a soldier of the 14 Separate Mechanized Brigade declaring the town of Chkalovske liberated from Russians.

Kyiv-based military analyst Oleh Zhdanov has said recent gains made by Ukrainian troops could pave the way for a further push into the Luhansk region, whose capture Russia claimed at the beginning of June.

“If you look at the map, it is logical to assume that the offensive will develop in the direction of Svatovo – Starobelsk, and Sieverodonetsk – Lysychansk. These are two promising directions,” he said.

Ukrainian forces have advanced north from Kharkiv to within 50km (30 miles) of the border with Russia and are also pressing to the south and east in the same region, Ukrainian chief commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi has said.

His troops have retaken more than 3,000sq km of territory this month, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding: “Ukraine continue to liberate territories occupied by Russia.”

Russia’s Gazprom says it will ship 42.4 million cubic metres of natural gas to Europe via Ukraine, the same volume as on Saturday.

KEEP READING:

• Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 200
• Last reactor at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant shut down
• Russian forces retreat from key towns in Ukraine’s northeast