Putin is assembling the Security Council after the Russian army began to surrender under the pressure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive
The Russian army began to give up its positions under the pressure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, and the 10,000-strong group in the Kharkiv region was under threat from the encirclement.
Against the background of the successes of the Armed Forces, the head of the aggressor country convenes the Security Council, 12 senior officials were summoned to Putin, including the heads of all law enforcement agencies (the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Foreign Intelligence Service), the heads of both chambers of the parliament, as well as the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Serhiy President Dmytro Medvedev and Secretary Mykola Patrushev.
‘The Kremlin will not comment on the course of military operations, as a result of which, according to Kyiv, the Russian army lost Balaklia — a city with a population of about 30,000 people, located 90 km from the regional center,’ – the president’s press secretary said.
As experts from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) report, the successes of the Ukrainian army in the Kharkiv-Izyum direction have led to a loss of confidence in the command on a scale not seen since May, when Russian forces suffered a fiasco while crossing the Siverskyi Donets River.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in an evening address on Thursday, said that since the beginning of autumn, as a result of the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, dozens of settlements on the territory of more than a thousand square kilometers have been liberated.
Following Balaklia, Ukrainian troops can take Kupyansk within 72 hours, a key city, the loss of which will further weaken the supply channels of Russian forces, ISW writes. The high speed of the advance of Ukrainian troops, the proximity to Kupyansk and the ability to shell the city cause panic in the Russian rear areas, say experts.
