ISW: Russian deployment of troops to southern Ukraine allows for Ukrainian counterattacks near Kharkiv region’s Balakliya

Ukrainian troops have conducted a counterattack near the city of Balakliya, Kharkiv region, that had likely driven Russian forces to the left bank of rivers Severskyi Donets and Serednya Balakliika, reports Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

There are reports that Ukrainian forces have captured the village Verbivka and that the Russian troops have lost their positions in villages Bairak and Nova Husarivka, note the experts.

According to ISW, pro-Russian sources “acknowledged Ukrainian gains in Verbivka and reported that Russian forces demolished unspecified bridges in Balakliya‘s eastern environs to prevent further Ukrainian advances”.

Russia’s deployment of forces from Kharkiv and eastern Ukraine to Ukraine’s south has likely allowed Ukraine to counterattack in the Kharkiv area, speculate the experts.

Ukrainian officials, including the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, have not yet commented on Ukraine’s counterattack in the Kharkiv region. Neither has the Russian Defence Ministry.

On 4 September, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian troops had liberated one location in the Donetsk region and two more in Ukraine’s south. Russia’s Defence Ministry admitted that Ukrainian forces had “attempted to counterattack” in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.