Thousands Flee From Kharkiv as Russians Push Forward in Ukraine

May 11, 2024

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have launched a new ground offensive in northeastern Ukraine, killing several people and forcing more than 1,700 civilians to flee the Kharkov region, local officials said Saturday. It was announced on .

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Sinievov said artillery, mortar and air strikes hit more than 30 towns and villages, killing at least three people and wounding five.

Ukraine rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday to thwart Russian attempts to penetrate local defenses, authorities said.

In late March, the Russian military intensified its shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. Friday’s attack signaled a tactical shift in the war by Moscow that Ukrainian officials had been anticipating for weeks.

Russian military bloggers said the raid was an attempt to build a “buffer zone” that President Vladimir Putin vowed to create earlier this year to deter frequent Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions. This could be the beginning of Russia’s efforts to do so.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged Friday night that the Russian military is expanding its operations. He also called on the country’s Western allies to ensure that promised military aid reaches the country’s front lines quickly.

“It’s important that our partners support our warriors and Ukraine’s resilience with timely deliveries. Timely indeed,” he said in a video statement about the X. “A truly useful package would be one that actually delivers weapons to Ukraine, rather than just announcing a package.”

KHARKIV, UKRAINE – MAY 10: Rescue workers respond to the scene of a Russian missile attack on a civilian residential area of the city on May 10, 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Early in the morning, Russian forces launched a missile attack on Kharkov, hitting an area of civilian residential buildings and injuring two people, including a child. (Photo credit: Eugene Hertnier/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

As the flow of Western military aid to Kiev has tapered off in recent months and promised new aid has yet to arrive, Kremlin forces have repeatedly sought to exploit Ukraine’s lack of ammunition and manpower.

Ukraine has previously said it is aware that Russia is amassing thousands of troops along its northeastern border near the Kharkov and Sumy regions. Intelligence officials also said Russia’s recent ground attacks had focused on parts of eastern Ukraine further south, and that they expected an attack there.

Russia’s gains in the region have so far been limited, but analysts at the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Friday that their gains in the region are “tactically significant.” .

They argue that while Russia only “committed relatively limited human resources to the initial attack,” the attack in Kharkov “redirected Ukrainian human resources and materiel from other key sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.” The purpose is to bring out

Russian forces could also try to cut off the region’s main supply route and blockade Kharkov, a city of about 1.1 million people just about 30 kilometers south of the border.

Early in the war, Russia tried unsuccessfully to quickly storm Kharkov, but retreated from the outskirts after about a month. Seven months later, in the fall of 2022, Ukrainian forces drove them out of Kharkov. The bold counterattack helped convince Western powers that Ukraine could defeat Russia on the battlefield and was worthy of military support.