ISW: Russian Group Is Semi-Encircled In Balakliya

Russians blow up bridges near the city and retreat.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are counterattacking not only in the south, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted at earlier. Ukrainian forces unexpectedly went on a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region and came close to Balakliya, taking advantage of the fact that the Russian command relocated all the most combat-ready units to the south. This is stated in the summary of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Ukrainian forces conducted a counterattack in the Kharkiv region near Balakliya that drove Russian forces back to the left bank of the Severskyi Donets and Serednya Balakliika rivers on September 6. Ukrainian forces likely captured Verbivka (less than 3 km northwest of Balakliya) on September 6.

Multiple 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. Images posted on September 6 also show a destroyed Russian bridge over the Serednya Balakliika River - a geographic feature behind which the Russian front line in this sector likely lies. Social media users reported that Russian forces withdrew from checkpoints six kilometers west of Balakliya on September 6,” the ISW report reads.

Furthermore, the institute noted that the Russian forces likely no longer maintain their previous positions in Bairak and Nova Husarivka to the south of Balakliya. Retreating, they blew up the bridge across the Severskyi Donets near Bairak.

“Russia’s deployment of forces from Kharkiv and eastern Ukraine to Ukraine’s south is likely enabling Ukrainian counterattacks of opportunity. The September 6 Ukrainian counterattack in Kharkiv was likely an opportunistic effort enabled by the redeployment of Russian forces away from the area to reinforce Russian positions against the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kherson region," analysts write.

If the Armed Forces of Ukraine really occupied not only Verbivka to the west of Balakliya, but also two villages south of Bairak and Nova Husarivka, then Balakliya was actually in a semi-encirclement. Russians, as ISW analysts noted, they were perturbed by the fact that “Ukrainian attack on Balaklyia is intended to cut Russian forces off from Izyum and slowly ”wedge” into the Luhansk region”.