Ukraine extends battlefield gains as Kremlin
reels from setback
KYIV, Ukraine — Blue-and-yellow flags [no more beautiful flag] were raised in more liberated towns and villages in northeast Ukraine on Monday, as the stunning counteroffensive that pushed Russia into a messy retreat boosted optimism at home and abroad over a potential turning point in the war, and renewed international calls to send Ukraine more weapons in hopes of hastening Russia’s defeat.
The lightning push by Ukrainian forces, in which they recaptured in a matter of days nearly all of the Kharkiv region occupied since the early days of the war last winter, left Moscow reeling.
The Ukrainian military said Monday that in the previous 24 hours it had advanced into an additional 20 towns and villages that had been under Russian control...On Sunday, Ukraine’s commander in chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, said his forces had retaken more than more than *2,300 square miles — an area more than twice the size of Luxembourg — in a matter of weeks.
...the Russians abandoned tanks, armored vehicles and ammunition that Ukraine plans to refashion and use on the battlefield. Posting a video of an fully-intact Russian howitzer, a Ukrainian official joked on Twitter that the Ukrainian “military accepted its first lend lease supplies from Russia” in the liberated city of Izyum.
It is their sunny disposition, here in their characteristic sense of humor, and only blue skies that make the Ukrainian people, I think, the best of humanity.
Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tweeted Sunday that “all stockpiles of western advanced armaments,” including long-range missiles, fighter jets and tanks, “must be made available to Ukraine.” Western nations have so far held back in providing some of those.
“Let me be frank,” Landsbergis wrote. “It is now beyond doubt that Ukraine could have thrown Russia out months ago if they had been provided with the necessary equipment from day one.”
In Moscow, the retreat exposed fissures among Kremlin loyalists.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he might have to speak with Putin himself because he didn’t trust that Putin is receiving the bad news from his advisers. Pro-Russian military bloggers have sharply criticized the government for not mobilizing more soldiers for the fight — a move that Putin has sought to avoid because conscriptions could risk turning public support against the war.
On Monday, officials reiterated that the aims of the “special military operation” — the Kremlin term for the war — would be accomplished regardless of the setbacks, though the precise aims have never been fully clear. At first, Putin was intent on capturing Kyiv and toppling the government, but that failed.
But the mood around Ukraine remained jubilant and defiant on Monday.
Always
The euphoria seemed only to harden Ukraine’s position that it will not
surrender an inch of territory to Russia, and is intent on reclaiming
land, including Crimea, that has been occupied since 2014. Zelensky
reiterated on Sunday night that Ukraine was not prepared to negotiate
with Russia...
