War in Ukraine
New front – Wagner Group is back in Ukraine and takes village near Sumi
Russian fighters display the Wagner banner in Ukraine
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In the north of Ukraine, near Sumi, the Russians have opened a new mini-front. Wagner fighters have taken over a small village. Once again, Kiev has to deploy troops that are urgently needed in the east.
Now it has happened. The Russians have crossed the border in the Sumi area and captured the village of Ryzhivka. Kiev is playing down the loss, saying the place is in the gray zone. Presumably only territorial defense forces were present there, who could not withstand the Russian commandos. And there was a surprise. As proof of the capture, the Russians showed a video in which they held the Wagner group’s flag in front of the camera. Uniform patches from the group on individual fighters have often been seen. But the flag suggests that the operation was carried out by a closed Wagner force.
In March, Ukraine attempted to advance into Russian territory from Ryzhivka, but the attack ended in disaster. It turns out that the hopes that the mercenaries would simply go home after the failed coup and the death of their leader Prigozhin were in vain. In one way or another, the fighters were integrated into Putin’s war machine.
So far a very small group in Ukraine
The presence of these fighters shows that the operation is serious, despite its small dimensions. The idea behind it is easy to see: Russia is opening a new active front in the north, as it did at Kharkiv. And here too, Kiev must now use valuable and scarce reserves to keep the Russians at bay or even push them back. Doing nothing and not deploying troops is not an option. If they are not blocked, the Russians will advance a few kilometers and cut off an important railway line there.
The fighting continues near Kharkiv without either side being able to gain decisive positions. In some places, such as Sumi, the Ukrainians were able to push the invaders back a little, while in others the Russians advanced. The situation in the city of Volchansk is unchanged. The Russians cannot push the Ukrainians out of the northern part, nor can they bypass the city on the flanks.
Kharkiv Front makes no progress
The fighting is not only raging in the small town, both sides are also trying to eliminate the enemy’s depots, artillery and command centers in the hinterland. This is where the Ukrainians can now use the American HIMARS launchers. Pro-Ukrainian bloggers and experts assume that the Russians are suffering greater losses. There is no evidence for this. The Russians’ firepower still seems to be far greater, and they are also using glide bombs on a larger scale than the Ukrainians.
In eastern Ukraine the front begins to slide
From the Russian perspective, the advance at Sumi and the fighting at Kharkiv are primarily a distraction from the events in the Donbass; the fronts in the north are intended to tie down Ukrainian troops. And in fact, the Russians are steadily making progress in the east. No major breakthroughs are being made, but every single day the Ukrainians are being pushed back in a handful of places.
For example, they were able to take the small town of Novooleksandrivka by surprise in just a few hours. Apparently, the defenders of the 118th Battalion could no longer withstand the pressure. They are said to have retreated on their own initiative and fled. This in turn caused difficulties for the neighboring Ukrainian positions. The town itself is barely a kilometer long and not particularly significant. But such scenarios are the goal of the ongoing, grueling fighting. The Russians hope that with constant shelling they will weaken individual Ukrainian units to the point that they give up the fight.