![]() They hit critical infrastructure, causing what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a total blackout in places like Kharkiv and Sumy, parts of Dnipro. #Npr hourly news podcasts update#According to the Ukrainian military update this morning, Russian forces fired more than 50 missiles and airstrikes into Ukraine over the last day. INSKEEP: Have the Russians tried to strike back even as their troops are backing up? That's been a Ukrainian counteroffensive that's ongoing but just hasn't had the same traction as the one in the northeast. But meanwhile, in the south, Russian forces are dug in deep near Kherson and the Black Sea. He says part of the aim is psychological, to make the Russians panic and scramble. NADWORNY: He says capturing this territory is going to limit Russia's ability to shell Kharkiv and other Ukrainian-held towns and cities along the eastern front. SERHIY CHERIVODY: (Non-English language spoken). He's a colonel and a spokesman of Ukraine's eastern task force. So it's a big loss strategically for Russia. So they're a base from which they could launch attacks on the Donbas and the Donetsk regions. NADWORNY: Izium and Kupiansk, these are transportation and supply hubs for the Russian forces. ![]() But it's a tiny, tiny sliver, really, of Ukraine and really only a small sliver of what the Russians have occupied. Twelve hundred square miles is a lot of territory. INSKEEP: I just want to put this in perspective. He called it a regrouping in order to scale up efforts further southeast. IGOR KONASHENKOV: (Non-English language spoken). Over the weekend, Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed that forces withdrew from Balakliya and Izium. But Russian military maps show that the front line in the east has moved significantly and not in the Russians' favor. So Russia's ministry of defense and the Kremlin have not officially acknowledged the counteroffensive. INSKEEP: And I get the impression that the Russians are not denying they've been backing up. Given videos and photos we've seen, Russian forces left in a hurry, leaving a lot of valuable weapons behind. They've made it to Izium, Balakliya and Kupiansk, all of which are strategic places in the Kharkiv region, places that have been controlled by Russian forces for the last six months. Over the weekend, people were glued to their phones, just watching towns get taken, checking to see what was next. is reporting that Ukraine has captured nearly all of the Kharkiv region. NADWORNY: The Institute for the Study of War in D.C. NADWORNY: So Ukrainian officials claim to have recaptured more than 1,200 square miles since the beginning of September. INSKEEP: So how much did the Ukrainians advance? NPR's Elissa Nadworny is in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Russian forces made a hasty and sometimes disorganized retreat toward their own country's borders. ![]() And on Saturday and Sunday, Russian forces appeared to collapse in the northeast. ![]() How much did Ukraine's war change in a single weekend? Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive in multiple areas. ![]()
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