NEW DELHI: Russia’s Defence Ministry announced that it was pulling back troops from two its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday where a Ukrainian counter-offensive made a rapid in the past week.
The move came after days of advances made by Ukraine south of Kharkiv. The announcement is considered a decisive turning point in the long ongoing war between the Russia and Ukraine.
The state-run TASS news agency quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying that it had ordered forces to leave the vicinity and reinforce operations elsewhere in neighbouring Donetsk.
“In order to achieve the declared goals of the special military operation for the liberation of Donbass, it was decided to regroup the Russian forces stationed near Balakleya and Izyum to boost efforts in the Donetsk direction,” Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the media.
As reported by TASS, according to the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, for that purpose, an operation of reorganizing and redeploying the Izyum-Balakleya grouping to the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has been carried out in the past three days. Simultaneously, distractive and demonstration activates indicating troops’ real actions were taken.
“A powerful fire attack, with the air force, missile and artillery troops engaged, was conducted against the enemy to prevent harm to Russian troops,” he added.