The battle for Kharkov: the situation on the Izyum-Kupyansky sector of the front
by the end of September 9, 2022 (From Rybar)

🔻Kupyanskoe direction

▪️Due to the transfer of reserves to the Kupyansky sector of the front, the RF Armed Forces managed to stop the advance of the main forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine a few kilometers from the city limits.

▪️By the end of the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine established control over the villages of Chkalovskoye, Shevchenko, Borovskoye and controlled the Chuguev-Kupyansk highway to Grushevka, which made it possible to transfer equipment and artillery systems to the line of contact.

▪️The Ukrainian command is forming a strike force to storm Kupyansk in the area of Grushevka and Staroverovka. The RF Armed Forces carry out artillery and rocket-bomb strikes on enemy concentration areas.

▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling the rear settlements in the liberated territories. The village of Bolshoy Burluk was hit especially hard.

🔻Izyum direction

▪️From the south of Izyum, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are attacking from Vernopolye and Dolina.

▪️When trying to advance to Gorokhovatka, the mobile groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine met with a rebuff near the village of Yasinovatoe.
▪️The reserves of the Russian Armed Forces came to the eastern bank of the Oskol River, which prevented attempts to cross the river by mobile groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Apparently, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will reinforce the mobile units on the western bank of the Oskol with heavy equipment and will try to conduct reconnaissance in combat of the defense of Izyum from the direction of Gorokhovatka.

🔻Balakliya direction

▪️There are unverified reports that the eastern quarters of Balakleya are still being held by detachments of the Russian Armed Forces. In the near future, we should expect an attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the villages of Vesele and Kunye.

In the near future, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will attempt to attack the Liman from Raygorodok. The main goal of the Ukrainian command in the area is to reach the Oskol reservoir and encircle the Russian group near Izyum.

The Russian Ministry of Defense showed the transfer of weapons, military equipment and personnel by Mi-26 transport helicopters of the army aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the zone of the NVO in the Kharkiv region.

Russian MOD is successfully catching up and rectifying problems that have arrived due to its own negligence. Typical.
#TransFormator

Russian troops that operate near Balakleya and Izyum to be redeployed for reinforcement at Donetsk direction in order to reach preestablished objectives of special military operation

◽️ With this purpose, Izyum-Balakleya group of troops had been redeployed to the Donetsk People's Republic within 72 hours. Various deceptive and demonstrative manoeuvres had been carried out marking real action of the troops within the abovementioned operation.

◽️ The enemy had been under powerful fire attacks with the involvement of aviation, missile troops and artillery for preventing any damage to Russian troops.

◽️ Over 2,000 Ukrainian and foreign militants, as well as more than 100 units of armoured equipment and artillery have been eliminated within 72 hours.

#Russia #Ukraine
@mod_russia

After leaving Izyum and Balakleya translated from the First Deputy Minister of Information of the DPR Daniil Bezsonov (non-official channel):

Yes, we left Izyum, as well as some other settlements in the Kharkov direction. Of course this is bad. Of course, this is the result of high command mistakes. But there is no need to look for hidden meanings in this. It's not about agreements and not about betrayal. We just fight the best we can. At all levels. Somewhere better, somewhere worse.

The main thing is to admit mistakes and draw the right conclusions. But mistakes must be acknowledged, and not replaced by telling about a cunning plan to lure naïve and self-confident Ukrainians into the Voronezh cauldron.

I will repeat my thought. There is no betrayal and "deal"! If in the south we managed to unwind Ukrainians, and there they also seriously has moved in, then in the north we didn’t. Gross negligence - Yes! It happens. We draw conclusions and carry on. It's about survival, not reputational loss.

Watch "Kharkov Offensive 2.0: Winning Headlines Today, Hastening Defeat for Tomorrow" on YouTube
https://youtu.be/n3zNxBahukU

Long lines of refugees on the Russian border near Volchansk, Kharkov region to cross into Russia. The distance to Belgorod, a major Russian regional center is 43km. The civil population of Volchanks is called to evacuate.
Ukrainian channels has already posted threats to "anyone who was clapping on the rallies and shouting 'together with Russia'..." And there are also people with Russian passports, with Russian number plates on their cars.

Translated from a competent source:

Today and the next few days we will not receive the most joyful news, and Ukrainians will dump gigabytes of photos and videos from the settlements we left behind. Kupyansk has been abandoned and, in fact, we cannot hold out on the right bank of the Oskol River now. I will say this, the decision to withdraw our troops is a military necessity that has prevailed over political expediency, and we must pay tribute to the fact that he who gave the order to withdraw showed courage.

Whether or not the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Balakleysko-Izyum sector was "overslept"; what was the state of the troops in this area; how reliable were the reports to the top - let those who are supposed to deal with all this. I repeat, in the current conditions, an organized withdrawal is the only right decision. And thank God that despite serious territorial losses, our losses in personnel are very small, especially considering the scope of the operation.

In our history, there were the most difficult defeats, after some we became stronger and repaid the enemy a hundredfold, after others the country itself slipped into disaster. [...] No need to sprinkle ashes on your head, look for traitors and build conspiracy theories. Such searches lead to a false path, which not only does not correct mistakes, but also aggravates them. We must calmly analyse what happened and realise that a difficult war is going on with a strong enemy.

Here ⬆️ a very important point is made - despite the image losses Russian command - most likely - Russian Supreme command (only he could have approved that decision) has set as the main priority the lives of the Russian servicemen. Russian forces have left Izyum even before Ukrainians has arrived at the outskirts. Could you imagine a situation when the Russian forces would get an order "to hold on at any costs"? And they would. However, happened what have happened. And that certainly took more courage than simply to arrange the heroic death of hundreds of Russian and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers. Certainly, there is also a question of the safety of all those people who have supported Russian administration in those towns. Hopefully, majority of them would evacuate and would find support in LDNR and Russia.
#TransFormator

Regarding the alleged calls for "evacuation from the Kharkov region to Russia" - this is not so. The head of the VGA Vitaly Ganchev asks to evacuate only those residents who are directly in the combat zone.

A very reasonable and correct call.

Now the main thing is to organize the reception of refugees. People who believed in Russia. Our fellow civilian leaders on the ground report a large influx of them.

If the government does not deal with their fate, it will be a national disgrace.

We had one question for understanding people: was the Kharkov retreat a salvation of people (not from a good life, but still) or a spontaneously chaotic process?

The answer was: basically the first, with elements of the second.

Already better.

Translated from a competent source:
The situation with refugees from the Kharkiv region is resolved, the authorities of the border regions and volunteers organized everything very worthily.

Very interesting comment from military professionals:
The current situation in the Balakleya direction in Telegram is compared with Austerlitz, Tsushima and Tannenberg. We are not inclined to such fatalism, but the current situation is really similar to one historical battle, even taking place on the same land - the Kharkov operation of 1942.

On May 12, 1942, Soviet troops launched an offensive on Kharkov from Volchansk and from Barvenkovo (the Soviet troops had a large bridgehead there: otherwise, the configuration of the front line was almost parallel to the modern one), having advanced significantly by May 16. On May 17, the Germans launched a counteroffensive with two attacks, on Kupyansk and Izyum - almost identical to the tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - in order to cut off the advancing group at Barvenkovo. By May 23, the cauldron slammed shut at Izyum, and by May 25 the front line stabilized along Oskol and the Seversky Donets - identical to the modern one.

In the cauldron near Barvenkovo, the withdrawal from which Stalin personally forbade (who was informed of the exaggeration of the threat of encirclement), 170 thousand Red Army soldiers died. In total, Soviet troops lost 270 thousand people, exposing a whole section of the front, which the Wehrmacht hit in June, starting Operation Blau - eventually reaching Stalingrad through the steppes of southern Russia.

It is possible that the withdrawal of troops from Izyum, which has been confirmed today, was dictated, among other things, by the experience of the Great Patriotic War. The main thing in this situation is to stop the newly minted Wehrmacht at Oskol, and not at Volgograd.

Izyum was released only on February 5, 1943. We still need the experience of liberating our land from the Nazis.

See above ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Plan of the Kharkov operation in 1942. Map enthusiasts will easily recognize toponyms and front configurations.

👔 Тактический галстук

Most Ukrainian men of military age should be ready to fight - Defense Minister Reznikov

"This is a war. And no matter how much we want to, we suffer losses, and these losses can be irretrievable or sanitary, and sometimes such that a person remains alive, but cannot return to duty.This means that the General Staff and the entire security and defence sector must be able to attract reserves, replenish the ranks from the mobilization reserve.

Unfortunately, men here, in a state of war, in their age parameters, the vast majority should be ready to fight, not even to be called up, but to fight."

While Russia is still living in a paradigm of a split reality, when in Moscow people are celebrating the Day of the City with tremendous fireworks and somewhere a "Special Military Operation" is taking place; Ukraine is turning towards not just a war, but a total war. Women of a number of specialities will be required to register with the Conscription offices as well.
#TransFormator

Heroes' wives
An amazing photo exhibition opened in Samara. The Women's Council of the Second Guards Army came up with the idea of creating photographic portraits of the wives of servicemen from the Samara Region. “People who look at our photographs will have the opportunity to walk along the edge of the lives of military wives, to understand what it means to raise children without fatherly attention, what it means to live far from relatives, to cope with household troubles and problems on their own. But we can handle it, we are strong. And I am sure that only true love can withstand everything, and not only that. In us, the women of Russia, an incredible energy is genetically inherent, which wakes up in difficult moments. It has awakened in us today, and we are ready to share it in order to unite and support our army, our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," said Ekaterina Kolotovkina, chairman of the Women's Council of the 2nd Guards Army, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

The authorities of the Zaporozhye region announced the shutdown of the sixth power unit of ZNPP

SIMFEROPOL, September 11 - RIA Novosti. The last power unit that worked at the Zaporozhye NPP was stopped, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the new military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye region, told RIA Novosti.
"For the last few days, the only working power unit - the sixth one - has been operating at minimum power. At night it was stopped at 3:45. Now it does not generate electricity," he said.

According to the representative of the CAA, the constantly changing mode of operation of reactors and turbines can lead to an accident.
In this case, the shutdown mode, as stated, allows you to restart the power unit.
Zaporozhye NPP is located on the left bank of the Dnieper near Energodar. This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of units and installed capacity. Since March, it has been under the protection of the Russian military. Ukrainian troops regularly carry out artillery strikes on Energodar and in the vicinity of the station.

This situation, albeit temporarily, reduces the risks of accidents at the station.
But with the onset of cold weather, the lost capacity of the ZNPP will lead to a deficit in the energy balance of Ukraine. Plus, the export of electricity to the EU will also have to be forgotten.
Therefore, this status quo will not last forever. Either they will have to agree on the distribution of flows from the station, or new shelling will begin. In the conditions of gas shortage, Ukraine without Zaporizhzhye NPP will freeze in winter.
#TransFormator

Rare and unique footage. A Russian drone spotted a Ukrainian attack aircraft flying up to our positions in the Kherson direction in the sky and recorded its destruction.

@NeoficialniyBeZsonoV

Translated from very competent source - Alexandr Khodakovsky - military field commander and blogger.

Information about the signs of preparing an offensive in the Kharkov direction came from various sources - this was not a surprise. How it was evaluated, how they reacted to it, how they managed to prepare and whether they were preparing - this is another question. But my observations show that no effective response system has developed, when, upon receipt of signals, some rollers begin to spin, everything starts to move and the resource, whatever it may be, is brought to maximum readiness.

Russian troops are fighting at the front, LDNR corps are fighting, which are subordinate to the RF Ministry of Defence, and are, in fact, part of the Russian army - but units that are not directly subordinate to the RF Ministry of Defence are also fighting. These are the Internal Troops of the LDNR, various special forces - there are quite a lot of them and they are well trained. But due to different departmental affiliations, friction arises when the curators of the "alternative army" do not agree with the army's approaches and bend their own line, and the army in retaliation squeezes resources - our battalion, for example, has not received ammunition from the army for more than three weeks and lives only for reserves.

One can, of course, say that it is necessary to drive everyone under one head - and the problem will end - but no: army approaches are often so specific that there is no great desire to dump everyone in one fire and burn them. We got around the difficulties caused by the upper discrepancies, the strengthening of horizontal ties on the ground, and it worked - but not always, unfortunately. The "alternative army" - let me call it that - retained its human resources, although the intensity of its "exploitation" was very high - just a different approach. In some army brigades there are fewer storm troopers than in our battalion, but they have equipment and artillery, which is used at seven percent efficiency, but which they stubbornly refuse to share.

Now we have received information that in the Ugledar direction the enemy is preparing a shock fist and is going to launch an offensive in the direction of Vladimirovka - Fine. It will happen soon - the enemy is inspired. How will we meet him? Will the army change its approach and make every effort to prevent the enemy from achieving another success? I, with my three mortars and the remnants of the ammo, of course, will give battle....

To put it short - failure at Izyum was caused not by the lack of intelligence data, but by the mistakes in the decision making process...
#TransFormator

"Counteroffensive, but at what cost?"

The French TV channel "France 2" showed a hospital in Kramatorsk, where a large number of wounded Ukrainian soldiers are brought.

It is noteworthy that the report was released in the second part of the final news program. The first part was entirely devoted to the accession of Charles III to the throne.

In turn, Reuters connects Ukraine's counteroffensive with its attempts to maintain Western support on the eve of winter and the energy crisis in Europe.

"Kiev is under pressure to demonstrate progress before the onset of winter, amid threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop all energy supplies to Europe," the agency writes.

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