Kyiv: In an escalation of the ongoing war, Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack near Ukraine's Kharkiv region on Friday, making small inroads and opening a new front of the conflict that is raging in the eastern and southern parts of the country. Russia also penetrated one kilometre towards the town of Vovchansk, a Ukrainian military source told CNN.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called these strategies a "new wave of counteroffensive actions" by Russia as Ukrainian reserve units had been deployed to the border to strengthen defences in the area. The defence ministry in Kyiv said Russia had pounded the frontier town of Vovchansk with guided aerial bombs and artillery. This marks one of the most serious cross-border offensive in two years.
"Russia has begun a new wave of counteroffensive actions in this direction. Now there is a fierce battle in this direction," Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv. Ukraine had warned of a Russian buildup in the area, potentially signalling preparations for an offensive or a ploy to divert and pin down Ukraine's overstretched and outnumbered defenders.
Russia preparing for major military offensive
Zelenskyy further warned that Russia is preparing a big offensive push this spring or summer and that although Kyiv's forces were prepared to meet Friday's assault, Moscow could send more troops to the area. The Ukrainian General Staff also said, for the first time, that Russia was also building up forces to the north of Kharkiv near the Ukrainian regions of Sumy and parts of Chernihiv.
The source said Russian forces were aiming to push Ukrainian troops as far back as 10 km inside Ukraine as part of an effort to create a buffer zone, but that Kyiv's troops were trying to hold them back. Meanwhile, the White House said the United States had been coordinating closely with Ukraine on Russia's Kharkiv offensive. "It is certainly possible that the Russians are setting themselves up for a larger assault on Kharkiv," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Despite overwhelming odds, top Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said they do not believe Russia has the force capacity available to launch a successful operation to capture the city of Kharkiv, home to 1.3 million people. The General Staff said battles raged for control of three frontier villages - Strilecha, Pylna and Borysivka - that were already seen as in a "grey area" of control.
Military spokesperson Nazar Voloshyn said fighting was still raging in the evening and that the situation was dynamic. He said he believed Moscow's operation aimed to draw troops to Kharkiv from the east where Russia is focusing its offensive. There was no immediate comment from Moscow.
Two civilians killed near border region
At least two civilians were killed and five were injured during heavy shelling of border settlements, said Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region. "All the enemy can do is to attack in certain small groups, you can call them sabotage and reconnaissance groups or something else, and test the positions of our military," he said.
In Vovchansk, a town with a pre-war population of 17,000 that has dwindled to a few thousand, authorities said they were helping civilians evacuate from the settlement and surrounding areas due to the heavy shelling. Zelenskyy said his top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi had reported to him that "heavy fighting" was taking place all along the more than 1,000 km (600-mile) front line.
Ukraine chased Russian troops out of most of the Kharkiv region in 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion in February of that year. But after weathering a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, Russian forces are back on the offensive and slowly advancing in the Donetsk region that lies further south.
Ukraine is facing a shortage of ammunition, with vital funding from the US previously blocked by Republicans for months and the European Union failing to deliver munitions on time. This shortage of ammunition, troops and armoured vehicles has allowed Russia to move forward into the country along the 1,000-km front line. Ukraine has also accused Russia of ramping up the use of illegal tear gas to clear trenches.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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