Putin’s Soldiers Flee ‘Like Olympic Sprinters’ as Ukraine Thrusts for Russian Border

(Social media photos showing removals of Russian flags from newly liberated towns and villages by Ukrainian troops.)

Soundly defeated Russian forces have been fleeing from their occupation zone “like Olympic sprinters,” according to the description of one Ukrainian military officer.

The Rush for the Border

Practically the entire Russian front in Eastern Ukraine has now collapsed; the Ukrainian military is making a push to reach the border with Russia in the entire region.

To top it all off, the Ukrainians are also pressing hard against the some 20,000 – 30,000 Russian troops trapped on the western bank of the large Dnipro River.

Over the last several weeks, the Ukrainian government has been talking about how it is gearing for a big offensive on Kherson, only to use that as a diversion. This led the Russian command to transfer most of its remaining capable troops there.

It was against that backdrop that Ukraine’s military stage a surprise storming in the east, routing the Russians and liberating major regional supply and command centers used by Putin’s generals.

The Ukrainian offensive has been hailed by military experts as a turning point in the war. At the same time, Russians have lost a stupefying 13,500 units of military equipment.

 

(Social media photo of Ukrainian troops in newly liberated areas.)

Ditching Tanks to Escape on Bicycles

Videos that emerged on social media on Sunday and Monday seemed to show Ukrainian soldiers reaching at least one of the crossings on the pre-invasion border between Russia and Ukraine.

This footage also shows numerous scenes in which the nation’s defenders removed the Russian flag from newly liberated settlements in the Kharkiv region and replaced it with the Ukrainian banner.

In a report on the latest security situation, the UK Ministry of the Defense announced Ukrainians have liberated a territory that is twice the area of “Greater London,” or more than 600 square miles, as cited by The Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, one of the Ukrainian commanders who took part in the eastern offensive, Petro Kuzyk, declared before The Financial Times that Putin’s troops have been fleeing before them “like Olympic sprinters.”

Kuzyk said some of the Russians, while abandoning their vehicles, “even grabbed bicycles” in order to escape with their lives.

The Ukrainian commander wondered how Putin’s troops could have exhibited “such cowardly behavior,” which has far outdone Ukraine’s hopes for military success in the counter-offensive.

He added further the “complete degradation” of the Russian army “made [the Ukrainians’] work easier.”

On Sunday night and Monday morning, seemingly in response to the Ukrainian advances, the Russian military carried out rocket strikes against several power plants and water supply stations all around the region of Kharkiv, plunging Ukraine’s second largest city into darkness.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the main adviser to Ukraine’s heroic President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, commented on Twitter that power plant strikes were the Russians’ “cowardly response” to their own “escape from the battlefield.”

This article appeared in BeyondNews and has been published here with permission.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR