Russian Defense Ministry says forces in Kharkiv were told to redirect to Donetsk and “regroup”


Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov holds a news conference about the support for Ukraine in Copenhagen, Denmark August 10. (Ritzau Scanpix/Martin Sylvest/Reuters)

Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrainian defense minister, said that Ukraine’s allies are “amazed” by the recent successes of the country’s military.

Speaking at the end of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, Reznikov said that Ukraine’s “partners were positively amazed by the dynamics of our troops’ activities: in the south under the command of Lieutenant General Andriy Kovalchuk and in the east under the command of Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi.”

His remarks came as Ukrainian forces made rapid progress in retaking territory held by Russian forces since the spring in the eastern region of Kharkiv. 

Reznikov said that at all the meetings with Ukraine’s allies, “there are certain key words that determine the focus of the discussion. At our first meeting in April, those words were ‘timing’ and ‘transition.’ “

“We have come a long way since then,” he said. “More and more Russians are beginning to believe that things around them are going in the wrong way.”

Thanks to allied assistance, Ukraine had received hundreds of artillery units, Reznikov said. “Ukrainian soldiers are bringing terror upon the enemy with accurate and indivertible strikes of M142 Himars, M270 MLRS and MARS II. HARM missiles are already leaving the enemy without radars.”

“The increase in the scale of aid as well as the successful actions of the Ukrainian defense forces that have held back the Russian invasion for almost 200 days, have significantly affected the priorities,” he said.

He said the key words were now “sustain,” “long-term,” and “training,” adding “Moscow still has a lot of resources. Victory will not come instantly. But it will definitely come.”

Reznikov said that “the task of training Ukrainian soldiers has been raised to a qualitatively higher level.” The training program initiated by the UK had already received thousands of Ukrainian soldiers. “30,000 soldiers will be trained within this program alone. They will return to Ukraine completely ready for battle,” he said.

“The sooner the war ends with our victory, the quicker the social and economic difficulties provoked by the Kremlin will be overcome throughout Europe,” he said.



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