Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said Ukraine’s armed forces were under “total control” of Bilohorivka. “It is a suburb of Lysychansk. Soon we will sweep these scum out of there with a broom,” he said. “Step by step, centimeter by centimeter, we will free our entire land from the invaders.” Video shared on Telegram shows Ukrainian soldiers patrolling on foot on a dilapidated street. Russian forces had occupied all of Luhansk province for the past two and a half months. After a long and hard battle, the Ukrainian general staff decided to retreat in July from the cities of Sievierdonetsk and Lysychansk. Map Over the past 12 days, Ukrainian regiments in the northeast have mounted a stunning counterattack, liberating more than 300 settlements across the Kharkiv region and forcing Russian units to flee in disorder. The reclaimed area is half the size of Wales and stretches all the way to the Russian border. There were unconfirmed reports on Monday of Ukrainian troops advancing on Lysychansk. Now there seems little prospect that the Kremlin will be able to take control of all of Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In March, Putin said this was the goal of his “special military operation” in Ukraine, after his failed attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv. Over the weekend, Russian troops shelled the town of Kupiansk from new, hastily constructed defensive positions just east of the Oskil River. Hundreds of people were evacuated. Ukraine said it took control of the entire city on Friday, driving amphibious vehicles over a floating bridge on the left bank of the river. Ukrainian officials say 200 Russian soldiers were killed in an attack on Sunday when a rocket hit a former bus shelter where they were stationed in the frontline town of Svatove. According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia has failed to send reinforcements. It is now under pressure and vulnerable to a further counterattack, the thinktank said. Governor Haidai said the leaders of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic began to panic. There were many reports of gangs grabbing men on the street and conscripting them into the army. Mobile communications and the Internet have been blocked to prevent people from learning about Moscow’s military failures, he claimed. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai at a center for displaced people in Vinnytsia on September 15. He said Ukraine’s armed forces were under “total control” of Bilohorivka. Photo: Oleksandr Lapin/Ukrinform/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Kremlin on Monday of reckless behavior after a shell landed 300 meters from a nuclear power plant in the southern region of Mykolaiv. The rocket destroyed buildings and blew out windows. Three power lines were temporarily knocked out at the Pivdennoukrainsk facility. Ukraine’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, said all three of its nuclear reactors were operating normally and were not damaged. “Fortunately, there were no casualties among the station staff,” it said. The agency released two photos showing a large crater it said was caused by the explosion. “They forgot what a nuclear power plant is. Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it’s too late,” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel. In the past he has accused Putin of nuclear terrorism and blackmail and called on the international community to intervene. This video released by the Office of the President shows the latest bombing near the Southern Ukraine nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv Oblast. The missile landed just 300 meters from the factory, damaging its facilities and three transmission lines. pic.twitter.com/qi1Wm3Ht5C — The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 19, 2022 The area of Mykolaiv has been under constant rocket fire from Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion. Ukraine launched a counterattack to liberate the nearby city of Kherson. It has made slower progress than in the Kharkiv area, on steppe level and with Russian units dug in. Another Ukrainian nuclear plant, in Zaporizhzhia – which is Europe’s largest and is located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) east of the Mykolaiv site – was shut down this month due to Russian bombing, raising concerns of a possible nuclear disaster. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of bombing the Zaporizhia plant, which is held by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian personnel. The shelling has damaged buildings and disrupted power lines. The UN nuclear watchdog said this weekend that one of the four main power lines in Zaporizhzhia had been repaired and was once again supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid. Russian soldiers have used the terrain to shell the Ukrainian-controlled towns of Nikopoli and Marchanets across the Dnieper River. More than 40 countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency have urged Putin to hand control of the plant back to Ukraine.
