Thousands of photos and videos on social media bear witness to the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv. They appear authentic, which is not a matter of course in times of war. In addition, figures on captured war equipment support the appearance of the extent of the Russian defeat.
The start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the north-eastern Kharkiv region is a week old. Initial skepticism about success stories on social media is increasingly giving way to the realization that the Ukrainian troops are really achieving great things militarily. Within a week, an area of ??several thousand square kilometers was recaptured by the Russian troops. An area that they had previously wrested from Ukraine in months. Above all, important cities such as Isjum or Kupjansk are lost to the Russians. Because of their railway connections, these are vital for Russian supplies in the Donbass. The fact that the cities cannot be held probably leads the Russian military leadership to realize that larger areas must be abandoned. Some of the Russian troops are leaving their positions in the Kharkiv region in panic and retreating to the Donbass or Russian territory.
Since then, there have been masses of photos and videos of the counter-offensive and its results on social media: destroyed Russian tanks, arrested soldiers who were unable to escape in time, Russian ammunition depots, some of which were full to the brim, the contents of which are now changing hands. There are also videos of proud Ukrainian soldiers hoisting their country’s flags in liberated towns and of the civilian population hugging the liberators, crying and offering food, apparently unable to believe their luck.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian politicians, but also bloggers, journalists and many civilians have been proving that they know how to stage images of the war well. Skillfully and movingly they stage the heroic struggle of their own troops on the one hand and the atrocities of the occupying forces on the other. It often looks as if the Russians are not achieving any military successes at all. Even if a lot of things are certainly not going according to the Kremlin’s plan, that’s just not true. The terrain gains are small, but they are there. Only rarely are the Ukrainians’ own losses named and shown. Nevertheless, things are not going well for Ukraine for a long time, as Russia seems to be too powerful in the end for the defensive battle to be won.
The current photos and videos of the counter-offensive show very similar images as in the past, but make a much more authentic, candid impression. The elderly women who greet their liberators seem genuinely overwhelmed by the military success of their soldiers. Mainly because it comes so suddenly. The large number of captured Russian fighters also does not seem staged, given the ambush-like tactics of the Ukrainian troops and the complete surprise of the Kremlin soldiers.
The fact that a large part of the tanks and armored vehicles remaining in Kharkiv were not destroyed by Ukrainian troops but could be captured also suggests that the Russian troops fled at great speed and simply left their war equipment to the enemy. The Oryx blog by military equipment experts Stijn Mitzer and Jakub Jankovsky reported that on September 11 alone, Ukrainian troops were able to neutralize 102 pieces of Russian war equipment. According to them, 95 of these 102 pieces of war equipment were captured, including more than 20 battle tanks. There are also reconnaissance drones, mine clearance vehicles and artillery pieces. The Ukrainian soldiers paint over the letter Z on the Russian military vehicles hundreds of times. The letter has meanwhile become a symbol for the Russian war of aggression and its support.
In the list of all Russian losses of military equipment kept by the two experts since the beginning of the war, the numbers on the Russian side have recently increased significantly, which indicates a success of the Ukrainian counter-offensives – the first of which was launched some time ago in the Cherson region. In terms of battle tanks alone, the Russian troops have lost well over 1,000 vehicles. A large part of the actual losses of the last seven days will certainly only become apparent in the next few days, when the big cleanup in the liberated towns of Kharkiv begins.
(This article was first published on Monday, September 12, 2022.)
