RUSSIAN troops retreated from the Kharkiv region today as Ukrainian forces pushed a counteroffensive in the area.

The withdrawal from Izyum was explained as necessary to strengthen the Russian position in Donetsk, further south, but marks the biggest setback for Moscow since it called off the siege of Kiev early in the war.

The retreat, apparently to avoid being surrounded by Ukrainian troops, provoked rare public criticism of the Russian military command from Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the semi-autonomous Chechen Republic within the Russian Federation and a lieutenant general in the Russian army.

“They have made mistakes and I think they will draw the necessary conclusions. If they don’t make changes in the strategy of conducting the special military operation in the next day or two, I will be forced to contact the leadership of the Defence Ministry and the country to explain the real situation on the ground.”

Mr Kadyrov is purportedly leading Chechen fighters participating in the invasion of Ukraine, though Russian authorities have repeatedly denied knowing his whereabouts and some of his claims to be fighting on the front line have been questioned, including a social media post claiming that he was in Mariupol on a day when he also presided over a meeting in the Chechen capital, Grozny, 600 miles to the south-east.

Russian missiles continued to rain down on towns in the Kharkiv area over the weekend. On the southern front, workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said they had shut down its last operational reactor, reducing the chances of a nuclear accident.