"The Ukrainian counteroffensive in eastern Kharkiv Oblast continues to degrade Russian forces and threaten Russian artillery and air defenses," the ISW said in its latest analysis of the war in Ukraine.
It quoted the Ukrainian General Staff as reporting on Wednesday that "the intensity of Russian artillery attacks on Kharkiv City has decreased significantly, suggesting that Ukraine's counteroffensive has degraded Russian forces’ ability to conduct routine artillery strikes on the center of Kharkiv City as Russian forces have been pushed eastward towards the Oskil River and north back into Russia."
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian advances in eastern Ukraine "have likely forced Russian forces to pull air defenses further away from the frontlines in order to protect those systems from Ukrainian artillery fire, potentially exposing frontline Russian troops to air attacks."
The ISW also reported that "Russian occupation authorities shut off mobile internet in occupied Luhansk Oblast on September 14, likely to preserve Russian operational security and better control the information environment as Russian forces, occupation officials, and collaborators flee newly-liberated Kharkiv Oblast for Russian and Russian-controlled territories."
The governor of Ukraine's easternmost Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, said on Wednesday that Russian occupation authorities ostensibly shut down the internet “to ensure defense capability and security,” but implied that occupation authorities intended the shutdown, at least in part, to hide large-scale evacuations and looting, according to the US think tank.
Thursday is day 204 of Russia's war on Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, understandingwar.org