Russia's 4th Guards tank division is renowned in the annals of Soviet military history, having earned its fame in Stalingrad and during the liberation of Poland from the Nazis.

On Saturday, it was established in Trostyanets, a town 350 kilometers east of Kyiv. If further proof were needed that Vladimir Putin's invasion was faltering, the photographs arriving from Trostyanets of burnt-out howitzers and tanks belonging to the elite division would undoubtedly upset even the Kremlin's most devoted fans.

Trostyanets, located just 24 kilometers from the Russian border, was attacked at the invasion's commencement and conquered by Russian troops on March 1 following a week-long struggle. When the armored vehicles entered Trostyanets' main square earlier this month, their movements were captured on mobile phones and shared on social media by residents.

Nearly four weeks later, the same tanks and artillery units from the 4th tank division videotaped maneuvering into position in the town square were destroyed. Russian service members were captured or killed by Ukrainian troops and local guerilla forces.

Trostyanets was flying the Ukrainian flag again on Sunday, after 25 days under Kremlin rule. The victory's significance should not be underestimated.

Trostyanets is located on a significant route about 50 kilometers south of Sumy, under siege for about a month. The counter-offensive to reclaim it provides the promise of reopening a supply line to Sumy, a city of around 250,000 people, for military reinforcements and food and medicine.

To the south of Trostyanets is Okhtyrka, a sizable town that Russia carpet-bombed but refused to surrender. This has aided in preserving a direct route connecting Kyiv and Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv.

Recapturing Trostyanets eliminates a Russian launchpad for future assaults and raises doubts about the Kremlin's ability to retain the captured territory.

Ukraine's army advanced in the Sumy region on Sunday, with men walking on foot in battle fatigues under the protection of an armored vehicle firing at Russian positions.

After a Ukrainian tank fired at the attackers, the conflict concluded in a massive explosion. The following tableau depicts around ten Russian troops, each wearing a red armband, lying face down in a field or yard with burning houses in the backdrop. The troops' arMs are outstretched as their Ukrainian captors search them individually.

"Trostyanets is free from Russian occupation," declared the Facebook page of Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade, dubbed Kholodhny Yar after the final piece of Ukrainian territory to be annexed by the Soviet Union four years after the Russian revolution.

Ukrainian military officers were photographed shaking hands with liberated townspeople and standing in front of a burnt-out 2S19 Ms.ta self-propelled howitzer – a massive gun based on a tank chassis capable of firing 152.4mm caliber shells 24 kilometers. Putin used the howitzers throughout the second Chechen war and during his 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine.

Another shot shows four troops dressed in military fatigues posing in front of stacked boxes of Russian ammunition. Other photographs depicted the wreckage and devastation left behind by a month's battle's worth.

The Facebook page continued as follows: "Today, the 93rd Mechanized Brigade Kholodnyi Yar liberated Trostyanets in the Sumy region from Russian occupation forces with the assistance of territorial defense forces and local partisans.

"Kholodnyi Yar fighters have successfully expelled Russia's 'elite' ground forces, the Kantemyr tank division [4th Guards].

"This was preceded by the 96th Separate Reconnaissance Brigade's command post and leadership being destroyed in the opening days of the defense of Okhtyrka and the fighting for Trostyanets.

"After a series of setbacks, the Russian army has fled Trostyanets, leaving behind weapons, equipment and ammunition that the 93rd Brigade will use to liberate other Ukrainian cities from occupation."

The Russian takeover of the town will now be investigated for war crimes. The Sumy regional prosecutor's office initiated an investigation following allegations that the Russian military threw hand grenades at people protesting the Kremlin's control of the town on March 18. Two guys were killed in the explosion.

A former colonel in British military intelligence, Philip Ingram, stated: "Trostyanets is a town located on a major north-south highway connecting Sumy and Okhtyrka. If Ukraine gains control of that road, it severely limits Russia's maneuverability.

"Any roads reclaimed by Ukraine have an effect on Russia's mobility. The Russians are limited to roads, and control of crossroads provides fire positions directly down them."

Ukraine's defensive positions in the region remain unknown. However, their capacity to mount counter-attacks a month after the invasion indicates that Russia has been unable to deliver decisive blows - even in areas close to its border, where supply lines are shorter and logistics are theoretically easier.

Mr. Ingram stated that the Russian forces were being harmed by a combination of hand-held anti-tank weaponry supplied by the West, primarily Javelins and N-Laws, and drone strikes. Despite the Kremlin's failure to achieve air superiority to destroy Ukrainian tanks, Ukrainian armored infantry appears to retain the ability to maneuver along combat lines.

According to Jack Watling, a land warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, the recovery of Trostyanets "demonstrates that the Ukrainians are capable of counter-attacking," which means "Russia cannot assume that once they seize territory, they have secured it. This constrains the amount of resources they may devote to the area they are attempting to conquer at any given time."

The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov, who was born in Ukraine, hailed the recapture of Trostyanets as the "most significant counter-offensive success so far" He stated that just one regional capital, Chernihiv, remained besieged.

According to Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the Sumy regional administration chairman, the Russians mined critical infrastructure in Trostyanets, including the local hospital. The organization of medical assistance, as well as food and other supplies, is underway.

With communications in and out of town cut off, emergency personnel is being sent to drive around the town with loudspeakers informing locals that they are no longer under Russian authority and that assistance will be delivered.

The full scope of the devastation will not be known for several days. According to the United Nations, the official civilian death toll since the invasion stands at 1,119, with 1,790 wounded. However, it stated that the genuine casualty statistics would be significantly higher due to difficulties in correlating figures in areas like Trostyanets and the beleaguered port of Mariupol in the south.

According to Western officials, Russia has lost at least 10,000 men and suffered between 30,000 and 40,000 injuries – roughly a fifth of its fighting force. According to numerous accounts, the 4th Guards tank division - also known as the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division after a village it rescued from the Germans during its "baptism of fire" in 1943 - has sustained "significant" losses.

Photographs shared on social media showing burnt-out or abandoned automobiles allegedly involved in fighting on the way to Sumy substantiated the claiMs. A Russian mobile food truck was left in one video, holding primarily potatoes and onions and even a drawer brimming with jars of pickles. At times, it appears the Russian army is abandoning the battlefield.

According to Sofrep, a US-based military website, the 4th Guards tank division is "one of the more elite armoured divisions of the Russian Ground Forces" consisting of two tank regiments, a motor rifle regiment, and an air defense regiment. In Russia, the division is so revered that a Moscow metro station is called Kantemirovskaya in its honor. In the Second World War, the unit took part in the Battle of Kursk and the seizure of Berlin.

Russia has not yet succeeded in cutting down supply lines in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. Online videos showed a big group of Russian soldiers being taken prisoner of war near the town. According to unverified footage from Kharkiv released by pro-Kremlin fans, Russian prisoners of war were shot in the leg after being taken by Ukrainian troops.

It was alleged that a Ukrainian counter-attack south of Kharkiv recovered a reloading vehicle for a thermobaric missile launcher, one of Russia's most lethal bombs.

Russia pounded Chernihiv, the regional capital 160 kilometers north of Kyiv, that has been surrounded since March 10. Vladyslav Atroshenko, the besieged city's mayor, told The Telegraph that he is now waiting for a thaw in the adjacent river Desna, which would allow small boats to carry in supplies.

The old city of almost 300,000 inhabitants has been besieged almost entirely and is subjected to continual Russian shelling. Up to 50 injured citizens have been unable to flee for medical treatment. Electricity, water, and gas have been largely cut off, and food supplies are also running low.

"We think the ice on the river will melt in a few days' time, so we will be able to use small boats to bring supplies in," Mr. Atroshenko said in an interview via Zoom. "The river runs through areas that are sheltered from the Russians' view, so it is hard for them to target."

The mayor stated that around 100,000 people remain in Chernihiv, with the majority making a "conscious" choice to stay and protect the city. The city, which dates back to the ninth century, has sustained significant damage to its historic downtown market area.

"We will never surrender because we are a city with a 1,300-year history, and we have not been beaten or captured by invaders yet," Mr. Atroshenko stated.

With Russia mired in bureaucracy and retreating in some areas, questions about what its ruler - whose choice to invade appears increasingly irrational - would do to rescue Moscow.

"Russia is in real trouble here," Mr. Ingram stated. "This creates a two-pronged dilemma. They can either hunker down in defense and pound Ukraine with artillery, causing significantly more damage, or, if pushed further back, Putin, with nothing to lose, may do something really unpleasant."