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| Photo Credit: AFP/Getty via Newsweek. |
A Ukrainian official is claiming that retreating Russian soldiers flee “so fast they left half their equipment” behind, as Ukrainian troops mount a fierce counteroffensive in the east of the country, Newsweek quoted a Ukrainian official as saying.
Russian
forces hurriedly pulled off troops from positions it held to avoid being
surrounded by Ukrainian forces.
An adviser
at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko said Russian soldiers
have retreated so hastily that they have left behind a significant amount of
weapons.
Gerashchenko
tweeted a video that appears to show a Russian tank that was left behind in
lzyum, a major base for Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, according to Newsweek.
"Today
our military accepted first lend lease supplies from Russia in Izyum (that's a
joke, of course. I will mark my jokes for some time now)," he wrote.
"Russian soldiers fled so fast they left half of their equipment."
Ukrainian
forces have retaken over 3,000 square kilometers of territory since September
6, Newsweek cited a report from the U.S. –based institute for the Study of War
(ISW) on Saturday.
The ISW said
Russian soldiers are “hurriedly fleeing” the region to avoid being encircled in
the city of Izyum, which Ukrainian forces will soon capture if they have not
already done so, Newsweek reported.
On Saturday,
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced it was pulling back troops from the Balakliya
and Izyum areas but stressed those troops would be sent to the Donbas region of
eastern Ukraine, "in order to achieve the stated goals of the special
military operation to liberate Donbas."