When news meets the Ukrainian soldier Aleksej outside a hotel in the city of Kharkiv, he is still limping. He grew up here, in the city that has been on the front line since Russia attacked on 24 February this year. This spring he was hit in the leg by a bullet during the battles in Izium. He was in the hospital for three months. Now he is on leave, but says he is ready to fight on soon. Although he knows that he is unlikely to fully recover from the injury, he sees it as a small injury in this context. – There are many who have had to suffer much more than me. A Ukrainian soldier helps a wounded fellow soldier in the Kharkiv region. The area was won back by Ukrainian forces in the last battles in the region. The people in the picture are not connected to the case. Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov / AP Want more blood Many of Aleksey’s comrades never returned from Izium, which is the bloodiest battle of the war so far. One of his friends was killed in the fighting. The body has lain on the battlefield until today, says Aleksej. Some of his other friends have been to pick up the killed comrade. – Now, after many months, he gets an opportunity to travel home. Less than a week ago, the Ukrainian forces took back control of the strategically important city of Izium, in the far east of Kharkiv county. Aleksej is very happy about the Ukrainian progress in the war, but warns people against thinking that this means that the war will soon be over. – It will take a lot of blood before it finally wins, he says to news. Shooting in the distance In Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, you can still hear shooting in the distance. The days without falling shells and rockets belong to the exception. On 29 August, several buildings at Freedom Square in Kharkiv were bombed during an attack. The window of a building just around the corner from Freedom Square in Kharkiv is covered with plywood after an explosion. Photo: Lokman Ghorbani / news Straumen is awake all over the city after Russian rocket attacks against the electricity supply. Normally, trolleybuses run around the big city with one and a half million inhabitants. Now the authorities have introduced small diesel-powered buses. Diesel-powered buses have been seen in Kharkiv after a power outage as a result of Russian rocket attacks. Photo: Lokman Ghorbani / news Campaigns continue On Monday, Ukrainian authorities claimed that they had recaptured up to 20 cities and towns in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions within a day. A little later in the day, the US Department of Defense said that Russia had largely given up the Kharkiv region. Several of the Russian forces had retreated to Russian territory, the ministry said. According to Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar, the fighting in the Kharkiv region continued, but she also said that Ukrainian forces were advancing quickly. – The goal is to liberate the Kharkiv region and further everything that is occupied by Russia, Maljar told Reuters. Uncertain if there is a turning point Lieutenant-Colonel at the Norwegian Defense Academy, Palle Ydstebø, calls what we are now seeing a battle for the strategic initiative in Ukraine. And with the latest Ukrainian offensive, it may indicate that Ukraine is about to seize the strategic initiative. But it is too early to conclude whether this is a turning point, according to Ydstebø. – Historians can say what was the turning point. But we can’t say that now while it’s going on and on. Lieutenant Colonel Palle Ydstebø at the Norwegian Defense Academy. Photo: Gunhild Hjermundrud / news Nor does senior researcher Julie Wilhelmsen at Nupi believe in peace negotiations and an end to the war any time soon. – On the Ukrainian side, they have said that they want to recapture the entire occupied territory, including Crimea. On the Russian side, there is no will to give up either. It has almost become an existential question for the Putin regime. They have gone all out in a game they must win.
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Ukrainian soldier does not think the war is over yet – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
