By Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine made its boldest declare but of success on the battlefield in its week-old counter-offensive in opposition to Russian forces within the south, whereas European markets reopened on Monday in free-fall after Russia stored its primary fuel pipeline to Germany shut.

After days of declining to provide particulars about their new offensive, Ukrainian officers posted a picture on-line of three troopers elevating a flag over a city in Kherson province, a southern area occupied by Russia for the reason that warfare’s early days.

The picture of the flag being fastened to a pole on a rooftop, purportedly in Vysokopyllya within the north of Kherson, was launched as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy introduced that Ukrainian forces had captured two cities within the south and one within the east. In an in a single day handle, he didn’t determine the places.

After months of tolerating punishing Russian artillery assaults within the east, Ukraine has finally begun its long-awaited counter-attack, its greatest because it drove Russian forces away from the outskirts of Kyiv in March.

Ukraine had stored most particulars of its new marketing campaign underneath wraps thus far, banning journalists from the frontline and providing little commentary in public, saying this was wanted to protect tactical shock. Russia has publicly stated that it has repelled assaults in Kherson.

In a uncommon acknowledgment from the Russian facet that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was spoiling Moscow’s plans for territory it has seized, TASS information company quoted a Moscow-installed official in Kherson as saying plans for a referendum to annex the area to Russia had been placed on maintain as a result of safety scenario.

Mark Hertling, a retired former commander of U.S. floor forces in Europe, stated Kyiv’s goal seemed to be to entice hundreds of Russian troops on the east financial institution of the huge Dnipro River, destroying bridges the Russians now use for provides and would want to flee.

Russia had left “a pressure in Kherson, with a river at their again & restricted provide traces”, and Ukraine was hitting them with “precision weapons, complicated a RU pressure that already has very low morale and poor management,” Hertling tweeted.

REVERSING GAINS

Zelenskiy’s announcement {that a} city had been captured within the east was additionally notable, a suggestion Ukraine was benefiting from strain within the south to attempt to reverse a number of the positive factors Russia made elsewhere in latest months.

In his night handle on Sunday, Zelenskiy tempered his bulletins of success with a warning to European nations that they might face a chilly winter.

Moscow blames Western sanctions it says have interfered with repairs of kit for forcing it to halt the circulation of fuel by means of Nord Stream 1, its primary pipeline to Germany. Russia was as a consequence of reopen the pipeline on Saturday however has introduced that it’s going to keep shut indefinitely.

“Issues with fuel provide arose due to the sanctions imposed on our nation by Western states, together with Germany and Britain,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Monday.

European nations name the fuel cut-off blackmail. They are saying they’re discovering different sources of fuel and are already forward of targets in filling up storage tanks for winter.

International locations led by Germany have rolled out multi-billion euro packages of assist for shoppers and companies, which final week helped drive European fuel costs again down sharply from document highs.

BLEAK WINTER

However the weekend information about Nord Stream’s prolonged shutdown despatched costs hovering as soon as once more on Monday, with the primary European benchmark up by round 1 / 4, bringing fears of a bleak winter for shoppers and companies throughout the continent.

share index was down effectively over 2%, the Euro sank beneath 99 U.S. cents for the primary time in a long time, and a brand new prime minister taking up in Britain would discover the pound cratering to mid-Nineteen Eighties ranges.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov additionally stated Moscow deliberate to retaliate for the most recent Western transfer: a proposed cap on the value of Russian oil exports from December designed to scale back Moscow’s primary supply of earnings.

In Russia, which has successfully banned all impartial media since President Vladimir Putin launched his “particular army operation” in February, a decide revoked the license of stalwart liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of many final unofficial voices.

The ruling was “a political hit job, with out the slightest authorized foundation”, stated its editor, Dmitry Muratov, who gained final 12 months’s Nobel Peace Prize for the paper’s combat without spending a dime speech.

Novaya Gazeta was based 30 years in the past with Nobel Peace Prize cash gained by the earlier Russian laureate – former Soviet chief Mikhail Gorbachev, who was buried on the weekend. Putin declined to attend his funeral, a closing symbolic snub of the person who presided over the breakup of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine was essentially the most populous of 14 states to realize independence from Moscow.

With preventing shifting to southern Ukraine, worldwide consideration has targeted in latest weeks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy station, captured by Russia however nonetheless operated by Ukrainian engineers and hooked to Ukraine’s energy grid.

Either side accuse one another of risking nuclear disaster by shelling close to the plant. Russia has resisted worldwide pleas to withdraw its forces from the ability and demilitarise the world.

An Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company mission reached the plant final week after crossing the frontline. Ukraine’s operator, Energoatom, stated on Monday two IAEA consultants would keep on indefinitely on the plant.