War in Ukraine
Major Russian attack near Kharkiv
The Russian army is attacking the region around Kharkiv – here rescue workers can be seen working in a house. photo
© Not credited/https://photonew.ukrinform.com/ Ukrinform/dpa
Russian President Putin has threatened an offensive against eastern Ukraine. Now it looks as if his troops are trying to break through there.
A new major Russian attack on the city of millions Kharkiv is putting even greater pressure on the weakened Ukrainian army. After Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a new term in office and the pompously celebrated Victory Day in Moscow, Russian troops began an attack on the Ukrainian city of Vovchansk. It is located about 40 kilometers northeast of Kharkiv on the border with Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj confirmed the Russian attack, at the same time emphasizing that the Ukrainian military leadership had expected this action by the Russian military. “Ukraine met them there with our troops, brigades and artillery,” he said, according to the Ukrinform agency. “But our military leadership was aware of this and calculated their forces so that they could greet the enemy with artillery fire.” The Russian attacks were thus stopped.
In the morning from 5:00 a.m. local time (4:00 a.m. CEST), enemy ground troops advanced under the protection of armored vehicles to break through the defense lines, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in Kiev. The attacks have been repelled so far, but the fighting continues with varying degrees of intensity. This information cannot be independently verified.
Unnamed sources in the Ukrainian military told the Ukrayinska Pravda portal that four border villages of Strileche, Krasne, Pylne and Borysivka had been captured by Russian troops. They are even closer to Kharkiv, which has been subject to heavy Russian air strikes for months.
The Ministry of Defense informs
There has been speculation for weeks about a possible Russian offensive near Kharkiv. There are reports that Russian troops have amassed tens of thousands of troops there. The fact that the Ministry of Defense in Kiev commented on it, not the General Staff as usual, speaks for the seriousness of the situation. “Reserves are being brought in to strengthen the defense on this section of the front,” the ministry said.
The day before, the section of the front near Vovchansk had been bombed from the air with glide bombs by Russian fighter planes. Russian artillery shelled the Ukrainian lines overnight in preparation for the attack.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding their positions: not a meter of ground has been lost,” Kharkiv Region Governor Ihor Synyehubow wrote on Telegram. He doesn’t see any danger for the city of Kharkiv at the moment. The Russian military blogger Rybar wrote about the fighting in the region: The first thing is to expand the combat zone and identify the enemy positions during the battle.
Russia uses time windows
For the Ukrainian army, the offensive means another problem on the approximately 1,000 kilometer long front in the east and south, after it was recently pushed back near Bakhmut and Avdiivka. The defenders are still lacking weapons and ammunition after domestic political disputes in the USA prevented regular supplies for months.
An arms package worth billions has now been approved. But Russia is trying to take advantage of the time until these weapons arrive at the front, the commander of the Ukrainian army, Olexander Pavlyuk, told the British magazine “Economist”. “Russia knows that if we get enough weapons in one to two months, the situation could turn against them.”
The Russian side of the border area is the only region that has so far been affected by the war. The Ukrainian army is shelling the city of Belgorod and its surrounding area with drones and artillery. She wants to disrupt Russian supplies and stop the shelling of Kharkiv. The fighting on Russian soil was a problem for Moscow, especially during the presidential election in mid-March. At that time, Putin threatened to seize Ukrainian territory as a security zone to protect Belgorod and other cities near the border. Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion for more than two years.