HOW UKRAINE FOUGHT BACK

Attacks by Russian commando forces in the centre of Kharkiv were meant to lead to the capture of the city and pave the way for Vladimir Putin's dismemberment of Ukraine.

- KIM SENGUPTA

It was expected that the Kremlin would seek to take over the country's second-biggest city, which lies just 30 miles from the Russian border and has a population of 1.4 million, 74 per cent of whom speak Russian - supposedly with divided loyalties. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, predicted before the war began that the city would be seized under the pretext of “protecting" these people. And in 2014, pro-Moscow leader Viktor Yanukovych briefly planned to set up a base in Kharkiv after fleeing Kyiv  following the Maidan protests. The city's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, even acknowledged that “Kharkiv has always been considered more or less loyal to Russia”.

But 82 days after the 24 February invasion, Russian forces have been driven away from the city, changing the course of the invasion. It is one of the tragic ironies of Mr Putin's “war of liberation” that two largely Russian-speaking cities, Mariupol and Kharkiv, have taken the worst pounding. And while Mariupol is likely to fall now that the last stand of Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal steelworks are being evacuated, what happened at Kharkiv is seen as a major strategic and symbolic blow for the Kremlin.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces reached the Russian border, where they sent a video of themselves gathered around a border post in the national blue and yellow colours telling President Zelensky: “We are here! We are at the border!”

And US officials have declared that Ukraine has "won the Battle of Kharkiv”. What is now unfolding in the city, said Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, adds to the growing belief that “Ukraine can win this war”. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the British military, believes Ukraine's independence is now guaranteed.