Russia attempts to break through Ukrainian defenses in the Kharkiv region

Stay informed with free updates

Simply register at War in Ukraine myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.

Russian forces have captured three more villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region as they continue a new offensive aimed at pushing Ukrainian forces away from the front lines in the east.

Since the launch of the operation on Friday, Russian troops have occupied around 10 settlements spread over 100 km² of territory along Ukraine’s northern border.

Maps compiled by Deepstate, an open source Ukrainian analysis group, indicate that Russia captured three villages on Sunday and that a battle is underway for control of Hlyboke, a village 40 km north of Kharkiv.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that it had improved its positions in the Kharkiv region and carried out offensive actions in four areas: Vovchansk, Neskuchne, Vesele and Lyptsi.

Ukraine’s General Staff said Monday that Russia continued to attempt to break Ukrainian lines, that Moscow had achieved “partial success” around Lukyantsi and carried out airstrikes in and around Vovchansk. He indicated that kyiv had sent reserves and that depending on “the evolution of the situation, the increase (of personnel). . . will continue,” adding that his troops had all the necessary weaponry they needed.

Russian operations had previously focused on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, particularly around the critical stronghold of Chasiv Yar.

But Ukrainian officials believe Russia now wants to draw Ukrainian forces away from fighting in the east, where kyiv is outgunned and struggling to maintain its defensive lines.

Moscow is also seeking to tap its superior resources in anticipation of delivering new US military aid to Ukraine, after a congressional logjam was resolved and a new aid package passed last month .

Russian forces are advancing much faster in the north than their overwhelming gains in the east. However, Ukrainian officials and analysts said they had yet to achieve any significant breakthrough.

They added that much of the newly occupied area lies in a “gray zone” in which neither side previously held a position due to the difficult-to-defend lowland terrain.

Serhiy Kuzan, president of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation think tank, said Deepstate’s maps indicated that Russia had failed to achieve the kind of breakthrough it made a few weeks ago around ‘Ocheretyne, near the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk.

Kuzan added that although Russia did not have enough reserves to take Kharkiv, it had the capacity to continue fighting in the region for at least a month, with the aim of getting as close as possible to the city and “create pressure” there by bombarding it.

A Ukrainian Defense Force source told the Financial Times on Monday that Russia would need at least four times more troops than it currently has for a ground offensive on Kharkiv, and argued that the goal of Moscow was to expand Ukrainian forces.

Analysts had previously estimated that Russia would need to recruit at least 100,000 troops if it wanted to take Kharkiv, with the Kremlin reluctant to endorse an unpopular new wave of mass mobilization.

In addition to encroaching on Kharkiv, Russia could also seek to push Ukrainian forces deeper into the country to put them out of reach of the Russian town of Belgorod, just 30 km north of the border with Ukraine, which has recently come under increasing artillery fire. month.

The governor of the Belgorod region said Monday that 19 people had been killed following fighting the previous weekend, blamed on Ukrainian air and drone strikes.

At least nine people were killed Sunday morning when an explosion ripped through part of a 10-story building in the center of the city.

A Ukrainian official confirmed that the SBU internal security service carried out another drone attack in Russia, hitting an oil depot in Belgorod and an electricity substation in the Lipetsk region.

“Russian industry, which works for the war against Ukraine, will remain a legitimate target of the SBU. Measures aimed at undermining the enemy’s military potential will continue,” the person said.

On Monday, the Ukrainian army announced that it had replaced its commander in Kharkiv in order to strengthen its defense in the northeastern region.

The Ukrainian General Staff said fighting was raging around settlements in the gray zone, south of Pylna and on the outskirts of Vovchansk. He said reserves had been deployed to “stabilize the situation”.

“Our defenders are carrying out defensive actions (to) inflict damage on the enemy,” he said at a press briefing on Monday. “(They) use unmanned systems for the purpose of conducting reconnaissance and carrying out precise strikes in order to maximize casualties.”

Vadym Ivaneshchenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s 42nd brigade, which is fighting around Hlyboke, said Russian forces were approaching their positions. He said his unit was “fully equipped,” although more drones and electronic warfare equipment were still needed.

Speaking on Ukrainian radio NV, the head of Vovchansk’s local administration, Tamaz Gambarashvili, said it had been “extremely difficult” to build fortifications as the town was often bombarded by Russian bombing. But Gambarashvili said construction efforts were underway.

Cartography and satellite visualization by Steven Bernard