Ukraine says it repelled Russian attempt to cross border

Ukraine says it repelled a Russian armored attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region after Moscow’s forces launched an incursion across the border and sought to break through defensive lines.

Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Russian reconnaissance groups tried to penetrate the border, adding that “not a single meter was lost.”

“Ukraine welcomed them there with troops: brigades and artillery,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference.

Ukrainian commanders have for some time now expected a summer offensive, or even an attempt to capture the regional capital Kharkiv. But officials are adamant that Russia does not have the resources to do so.

Russia has the ability to aggravate the situation in the border areas, but not the ability to seize Ukraine’s second city, said the head of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, Andri Kovalenko.

Friday’s two small incursions over the Russian border represent a familiar but worrying focus for Ukrainian forces.

kyiv’s Defense Ministry said the attack began with heavy shelling of small settlements. Russian airstrikes attacked Vovchansk “using guided aerial bombs” with artillery support, before small Russian “scout groups” moved in.

The local leader of Vovchansk said the town had come under heavy attacks from the early hours of Friday and civilians were being evacuated. At least one person was killed and five others injured during the blockade, Syniehubov said.

“Around 05:00, the enemy attempted to break through our defensive line under the cover of armored vehicles. Currently, these attacks have been repelled and fighting of varying intensity continues,” the Defense Ministry said .

Heavy fighting continues and civilians are being evacuated from the Vovchansk district as reserve troops arrive there, officials added.

Moscow seeks to take advantage of the late arrival of American munitions and weapons by continuing its advances in the eastern Donetsk region.

The resumption of heavy fighting in the northeast once again illustrates Russia’s growing confidence and ambitions.

Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence, Major General Vadyn Skibitsky, told The Economist last week that Russia was preparing for an assault on Kharkiv and the northern Sumy region. This warning was repeated by the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavliuk.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops are said to have gathered at the border.

You could be forgiven for witnessing a repeat of what happened in 2022, when Russia failed to capture Kharkiv and Sumy in the first weeks of its full-scale invasion.

But, at least on the surface, officials and generals do not believe that either city could fall.

Russia was unable to conquer either of these cities despite having a larger and better trained force than it does today. Ukrainian sources estimate that around 90% of the initial army of 150,000 men died or were wounded.

Military commentator Oleksandr Kovalenko noted that Russia needed some 80,000 troops to capture the small eastern town of Avdiivka last February, after months of bombing. Big cities like Sumy and Kharkiv have a completely different scale, he says.

Second, Russia has discussed creating a buffer zone between its Belgorod region and Ukraine.

Indeed, Ukrainian troops continued to launch artillery strikes on Russian territory, to the dismay of some Western allies.