Olga Valkova (L), 64, meets her 80-year-old sister Garina Nazorenko as she returns to her liberated home village after six months and eleven days in Troitske of Kharkiv region on Sunday — AFP KYIV, Sept 19 (BBC): Ukrainian forces say they have regained control of the east bank of the River Oskil, seen as the front line with Russian troops in north-east Ukraine.
Russia's army has been almost completely pushed out of the Kharkiv region and a regional leader said the next target would be neighbouring Luhansk.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the next offensive was being prepared.
Meanwhile, Russia was accused of targeting a nuclear plant in the south.
Ukrainian nuclear operator Enerhoatom said a rocket landed 300m (1,000ft) from nuclear reactors at the the country's second largest plant in Mykolayiv region, damaging buildings and shutting down part of a hydro-electric power station at the complex.
The attack has not been independently confirmed, although the company posted footage of an explosion close to the site.
Ukraine's - and Europe's - biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia has come under repeated fire since it was occupied by Russian forces at the start of the war and the UN has called for a safety zone to protect it.
Ukrainian forces have launched counter-offensives in the south as well as the north-east, but they have made dramatic progress this month in the northern Kharkiv region.
President Joe Biden told US TV network CBS that Ukraine was paying a high price, but that Russia was "turning out not to be as competent and capable as many people thought they were going to be".
The head of Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, shared video of a tank crossing a pontoon bridge, and said Ukraine now controlled the left bank of the Oskil river. "Luhansk region is right next door. De-occupation is not far away," he claimed.
Russian pop megastar
Alla Pugacheva
condemns war
One of Russia's most popular singers, Alla Pugacheva, has called on the Russian authorities to declare her a "foreign agent", in solidarity with her strongly anti-war husband Maxim Galkin.
A showbiz star too, he was labelled a "foreign agent" on Friday after condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine.
On social media Pugacheva called her husband "a true incorruptible Russian patriot, who wants... an end to our lads dying for illusory aims".
She has been a big star for decades.
She said the Kremlin's "illusory aims" in Ukraine "make our country a pariah and the lives of our citizens extremely difficult".
Galkin, a comedian, TV presenter and singer, wanted "prosperity for his motherland, peace, free speech", she added.
The label "foreign agent" has been applied by the Russian government to various media organisations, campaign groups and individuals openly critical of Kremlin policies.
Alla Pugacheva has been a musical megastar here for decades. First, in the Soviet Union, where she began her career in the 1960s; then, after the fall of the USSR, in Russia.
She is a hugely popular and well-respected artist, which makes her public comments about Russia's offensive in Ukraine big news.
Her assertion that "our lads are dying for illusory aims that make our country a pariah and the lives of our citizens extremely difficult" is likely to infuriate the Kremlin.
It remains to be seen whether it will have any effect on Russian public opinion over what the Kremlin still calls its "special military operation".
Pugacheva and Galkin went to Israel in late March, a month after the Russian invasion, and Pugacheva returned to Russia late last month with her children.
In early September President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Galkin: "Our paths have clearly diverged - he has made very bad statements."
© 2026 - All Rights with The Financial Express
