KYIV, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces have seized an expanding area of previously Russian-held territory in the east in a “very sharp and rapid” advance, a Russian-installed regional official said on Friday, in a breakthrough that may mark a turning point in the war.

After keeping silent for a day, Russia effectively acknowledged a section of its frontline had crumbled southeast of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv.

“The enemy is being delayed as much as possible, but several settlements have already come under the control of Ukrainian armed formations,” Vitaly Ganchev, head of the Russian-backed administration in the Kharkiv region, said on state television. read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later said Kyiv’s forces had liberated more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region so far and that fighting continued in the eastern Donbas region and the south.

“Our army, intelligence units and the security services are carrying out active engagements in several operational areas. They are doing so successfully,” he said in a video address.

Ganchev had said his administration was trying to evacuate civilians from cities including Izium, Russia’s main stronghold and logistics base in the province.

Zelenskiy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, in a video posted on YouTube, said the Russian defenders in Izium were almost isolated. Citing what he described as reports from the front line, Arestovych said hundreds of Russians had died so far and several hundred more had been taken prisoner.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify his claim.

Russia has taken control of around a fifth of Ukraine since its troops invaded on Feb. 24 in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to “disarm” Ukraine. The Kyiv government and its Western allies accuse Russia of an imperial-style war of aggression.

SUPPLY LINES

The Russian defence ministry released video of military vehicles speeding along a highway, saying they showed reinforcements rushing to defend the area.

Ukrainian officials released videos showing soldiers raising flags and posing in front of street signs in villages and towns across part of previously Russian-held territory.

One image showed troops a highway welcome sign for Kupiansk, previously more than 50 km inside Russia’s front line. The city is an important target as the junction of several of the main railway lines supplying troops at the front.

Ukraine kept independent journalists out of the area.

Western military analysts said the advance could shut the supply lines Moscow has relied on to sustain its force in eastern Ukraine, and potentially leave thousands of Russian troops encircled. read more

Such rapid advances have largely been unheard of since Russia abandoned its assault on Kyiv in March, shifting the war mainly into a grind along entrenched front lines.

“We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very, very encouraging,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference in Prague.

The Ukrainian general staff said early on Friday that retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded personnel and damaged military equipment near Kharkiv.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been driven from their homes and Russian forces have destroyed entire cities. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.

In the latest reported strike on civilians, Ukrainian officials said Russia had fired across the border, hitting a hospital in the northeastern Sumy region on Friday morning. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

The centre of Kharkiv, which has been regularly bombarded, was hit by Russian rocket fire, wounding 10 people, including three children, Governor Oleh Synehubov said.

BREAKTHROUGH

The Ukrainians broke through in the east a week after Kyiv announced the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive hundreds of kilometres away at the other end of the front line, in the southern province of Kherson.

Ukrainian officials said Russia moved thousands of troops south to respond to the Kherson advance, leaving other parts of the front line exposed.

Russia’s RIA agency quoted Russian-appointed Kherson authorities as saying some Ukrainian troops were captured and some Polish tanks they were using were destroyed. Reuters could not verify those reports.

Ukraine has been using new Western-supplied artillery and rockets to hit Russian rear positions in the south, with the aim of trapping thousands of Russian troops on the west bank of the wide Dnipro River.

Zelenskiy is scheduled to speak to U.S. arms makers for the first time later in September, when he is expected to make an appeal for more weapons.

Washington has already provided more than $14.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since the invasion. read more

Separately, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday shelling had destroyed power infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar where staff operating the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station live, posing a growing threat to the plant. read more

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KYIV, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Russian state television broadcast an interview on Friday acknowledging that Kyiv had achieved a “substantial victory”, after Ukrainian forces burst through the frontline in a lightning advance.

The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and one of the biggest shifts in the war’s momentum since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital Kyiv in March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said troops had “liberated dozens of settlements” and reclaimed more than 1,000 square km (385 square miles) of territory in Kharkiv region in the east as well as Kherson in the south in the past week.

Western military analysts say the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway Moscow has relied on to sustain its force in eastern Ukraine, and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off.

After a day of providing little or no response, Russia’s defence ministry released video of its troops being rushed to reinforce the area.

“The very fact of a breach of our defences is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces,” Russian state TV showed the head of the Russian-installed occupation administration for Kharkiv province, Vitaly Ganchev, saying in an interview. Russian law bans all reporting of the conflict that diverges from official accounts.

Zelenskiy posted a video of Ukrainian soldiers announcing they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 km through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the advance and referred questions to the Russian military.

SUCCESS

Such rapid advances have largely been unheard of since Russia abandoned its assault on Kyiv in March, shifting the war mainly into a relentless grind along entrenched front lines.

Ukraine has not allowed independent journalists into the area to confirm the extent its advances, but Ukrainian news websites have shown pictures of troops cheering from armoured vehicles as they roar past street signs bearing the names of previously Russian-held towns.

“We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very, very encouraging,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference with his Czech counterpart in Prague.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, a junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has relied on to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east.

Moscow has long used its firepower advantage to make slow advances by bombarding towns and villages. But that tactic depends on tonnes of ammunition a day reaching the front line by train from western Russia.

The Ukrainian general staff said early on Friday retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded personnel and damaged military equipment near Kharkiv.

“Thanks to skilful and coordinated actions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of the local population, advanced almost 50 km in three days.”

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior Zelenskiy aide, posted a photo showing a Ukrainian soldier posing with a bound and blindfolded prisoner in civilian clothes. Tymoshenko identified the prisoner as the captured head of the Russian-installed administration of Ivanivka, a village deep in territory previously held by Russia.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been driven from their homes and Russian forces have destroyed entire cities since Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in February to “disarm” Ukraine. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.

In the latest reported strike on civilians, Ukrainian officials said Russia had fired across the border hitting a hospital in the northeastern Sumy region on Friday morning, destroying the building and wounding people. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

The centre of Kharkiv, which has been regularly bombarded by Russia, was hit by Russian rocket fire, wounding ten people, including three children, Governor Oleh Synehubov said. Rockets hit a children’s arts centre and a school, as well as private homes, mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.

BREAKTHROUGH

The surprise Ukrainian breakthrough in the east came a week after Kyiv announced the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive hundreds of km away at the other end of the front line, in Kherson province in the south.

Ukrainian officials say Russia moved thousands of troops south to respond to the Kherson advance, leaving other parts of the front line exposed and creating the opportunity for the lightning assault.

“We found a weak spot where the enemy wasn’t ready,” presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video posted on YouTube.

Less information so far has emerged about the campaign in the south, with Ukraine keeping journalists away and releasing few details.

Ukraine has been using new Western-supplied artillery and rockets to hit Russian rear positions there, with the aim of trapping thousands of Russian troops on the west bank of the wide Dnipro River and cutting them off from supplies.

Arestovych acknowledged progress in the south had not yet been as swift as the sudden breakthrough in the east.

Russia’s state news agency RIA quoted Russian-appointed Kherson authorities as saying some Ukrainian troops were captured during the counterattack and some Polish tanks they were using were destroyed. Reuters could not verify those reports.

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SEOUL, Sept 9 (Reuters) – North Korea has officially enshrined the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself in a new law that leader Kim Jong Un said makes its nuclear status “irreversible” and bars denuclearisation talks, state media reported on Friday.

The move comes as observers say North Korea appears to be preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, after historic summits with then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders in 2018 failed to persuade Kim to abandon his weapons development.

The North’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, passed the legislation on Thursday as a replacement to a 2013 law that first outlined the country’s nuclear status, according to state news agency KCNA.

“The utmost significance of legislating nuclear weapons policy is to draw an irretrievable line so that there can be no bargaining over our nuclear weapons,” Kim said in a speech to the assembly, adding that he would never surrender the weapons even if the country faced 100 years of sanctions.

Among the scenarios that could trigger a nuclear attack would be the threat of an imminent nuclear strike; if the country’s leadership, people or existence were under threat; or to gain the upper hand during a war, among other reasons.

A deputy at the assembly said the law would serve as a powerful legal guarantee for consolidating North Korea’s position as a nuclear weapons state and ensuring the “transparent, consistent and standard character” of its nuclear policy, KCNA reported.

“Actually spelling out the conditions for use are especially rare, and it may simply be a product of North Korea’s position, how much it values nuclear weapons, and how essential it sees them for its survival,” said Rob York, director for regional affairs at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum.

PREEMPTIVE STRIKES

The original 2013 law stipulated that North Korea could use nuclear weapons to repel invasion or attack from a hostile nuclear state and make retaliatory strikes.

The new law goes beyond that to allow for preemptive nuclear strikes if an imminent attack by weapons of mass destruction or against the country’s “strategic targets”, including its leadership, is detected.

“In a nutshell, there are some really vague and ambiguous circumstances in which North Korea is now saying it might use its nuclear weapons,” Chad O’Carroll, founder of the North Korea-tracking website NK News, said on Twitter.

“I imagine the purpose is to give U.S. and South Korean military planners pause for thought over a much wider range of actions than before,” he added.

Like the earlier law, the new version vows not to threaten non-nuclear states with nuclear weapons unless they join with a nuclear-armed country to attack the North.

The new law adds, however, that it can launch a preemptive nuclear strike if it detects an imminent attack of any kind aimed at North Korea’s leadership and the command organization of its nuclear forces.

That is an apparent reference to South Korea’s “Kill Chain” strategy, which calls for preemptively striking North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure and command system if an imminent attack is suspected.

Kim cited Kill Chain, which is part of a three-pronged military strategy being boosted under new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, as a sign that the situation is deteriorating and that Pyongyang must prepare for long-term tensions.

Under the law, Kim has “all decisive powers” over nuclear weapons, but if the command and control system is threatened, then nuclear weapons may be launched “automatically”.

If Kim delegates launch authority to lower commanders during a crisis, that could increase the chances of a catastrophic miscalculation, analysts said.

‘RESPONSIBLE NUCLEAR STATE’

The law bans any sharing of nuclear arms or technology with other countries, and is aimed at reducing the danger of a nuclear war by preventing miscalculations among nuclear weapons states and misuse of nuclear weapons, KCNA reported.

Analysts say Kim’s goal is to win international acceptance of North Korea’s status as a “responsible nuclear state.”

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has offered to talk to Kim any time, at any place, and Yoon has said his country would provide massive amounts of economic aid if Pyongyang began to give up its arsenal.

South Korea on Thursday offered to hold talks with North Korea on reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, in its first direct overture under Yoon, despite strained cross-border ties. read more

North Korea has rebuffed those overtures, however, saying that the United States and its allies maintain “hostile policies” such as sanctions and military drills that undermine their messages of peace.

“As long as nuclear weapons remain on earth and imperialism remains and manoeuvres of the United States and its followers against our republic are not terminated, our work to strengthen nuclear force will not cease,” Kim said.

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