Russia launches major offensive in Kharkiv region

Russian forces launched a major offensive into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday, forcing Ukrainian forces to redeploy and defend new fronts.

Russian forces appear to have launched the attack from Russia’s Belgorod region and are moving toward Bovchansk, a town north of Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported that its troops were defending a stronghold in Kharkov after Russian forces launched airstrikes and artillery fire ahead of an early morning attack on armored vehicles.

“For now, these attacks have been repulsed. Fighting of varying intensity continues,” the Ministry of Defense said. I wrote to X. “Reserve units have been deployed to strengthen the defense of this area of ​​the front. The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to deter enemy attacks.”

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Friday that its troops had repelled 13 attacks around the towns of Shinkiivka, Petropavliivka and Berestov in the Kharkov region.

The northern region of Kharkiv has been a battlefield in the war between Russia and Ukraine, but most of the fighting has spread on the front lines in the eastern and southeastern regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.

Russia is making significant advances in the Donetsk region after months of delays in new US military aid to Kiev, putting intense pressure on Ukrainian forces across the front.

Russian military blogger Leiber reported on Telegram that Russia launched a “massive attack on planned targets” with artillery and mortars before the troops advanced. However, the blogger stressed that it is too early to discuss any major developments or the capture of the town as the army advances towards Vovtyansk.

George Barros, leader of the Russia and Geospatial Intelligence teams at the Institute for the Study of War, said: said in X Moscow’s attack could be a powerful reconnaissance operation, a large-scale operation aimed at obtaining information about the enemy’s location, or an “improperly conducted combined arms attack.” there is a possibility.

In any case, troops are already defending against Russian attacks across the eastern and southeastern fronts, so this attack will further burden Ukraine on another front.

Michael Coffman, senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: Speaking on the podcast “War on the Rocks” Earlier this week, he said if Russian troops were able to approach the city of Kharkiv, it could force a partial evacuation and create “serious problems”.

“I don’t think Russia has the military strength to take Kharkiv, but Russia could invade to create a so-called buffer zone that would effectively endanger Kharkiv, and that’s something the Ukrainian military would have to do. It will be,” he said. Having to deal with all the way to the northeast will present many challenges in holding the remaining fronts. ”