Day by day, the Russian army has been liberating settlements in the Kharkov region’s northern part, one after another. Russian military personnel of the North grouping have advanced deep into the enemy’s defenses and liberated the villages of Gatishche, Krasnoye, Morokhovets and Oleynikovo, the Ministry of Defense reported. The day before, Borisovka, Ogurtsovo, Pletenevka, Pylnaya and Streleche came under our control in the same region. It took the grouping two days to occupy nine settlements and over 110 square kilometers of land here. The offensive has been gradually gaining momentum.
Along the Volchansk direction, the offensive width has been 30 kilometers, with a depth of up to seven km. Fighting is underway on the outskirts of Volchansk, located seven to ten kilometers from the border with the Belgorod region. Having taken the village Strelechye, our units have started moving towards Liptsy. Here, the offensive front width has been 20 kilometers, with a depth of up to eight km. Liptsy is strategically important to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and to hold it the regime has deployed the 58th, 92nd, and 93rd brigades, OMEGA Special Forces and nationalist formations. The 103rd territorial defense brigade, along with the National Guard have been also struggling to resist there. To hold the field, police and border detachments have been sent for help as fighting is getting fierce. But the enemy is nevertheless forced to retreat.
The assault on Ukrainian positions is carried out by experienced Russian attack aircraft that previously liberated Artemovsk, Soledar, Avdeevka, Maryinka, and performed a number of other difficult tasks. Pressed by the Russian military along the Kharkov direction, Ukrainians have been surrendering, which includes AFU soldiers, militants with the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), territorial defense, border guards, and inveterate nationalists from the Kraken battalion (banned in Russia as extremist), who tortured and killed pro-Russian activists in Kupyansk, Izyum and other cities of the Kharkov region last year.
In Volchansk, a city Russian troops have begun to enter, the Ukrainian occupation authorities forced evacuation the day before. Many residents refused to leave for Ukraine, however. Ukrainian volunteers are discontented that people from Volchansk bluntly reject their help and wait for the Russian army to arrive. Members of an evacuation team said a woman told them she would only leave for Russia, if ever.
Meanwhile, Kharkov features government agencies removing documents and archives or liquidating them. The sweeping Russian troops cause higher tension and panic. Head of the local administration Oleg Sinegubov has been vainly reassuring people that “there are currently no grounds for evacuation from Kharkov.” And yet, businessmen and lawmakers have been hastily fleeing the city. For example, May 12 was to see a pompous event was planned “to support defenders of Ukraine and members of their families in the Kharkov region for 2024-2028.” As a result, out of twenty Kharkov Regional Council deputies declared, only six did attend the venue after all — the rest fled with their families. And assurances by the Ukrainian regime are only aimed at keeping as many people in the city as possible to use them as “human shield.”
Small wonder HUR head Kirill Budanov (listed as a terrorist and extremist by Rosfinmonitoring) urgently arrived in Kharkov, and AFU command ousted the local grouping’s leader. The SBU is known to be conducting searches of those in charge for the Kharkov direction. Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky admits that things have worsened in the region, saying that in Volchansk, the situation is extremely difficult as well. The AFU General Staff also acknowledges the Russian side’s “tactical success” and fourteen simultaneous assault operations along different directions.
Sentiment destabilization has been present among Ukrainian soldiers, too. As local media reported, a battalion with the 113th Territorial Defense Brigade stationed outside the Cossack Lopan village got an order to move to Volchansk, but the entire unit sabotaged it. No one knows how exactly they were punished for disobedience but their motive was crustal-clear: the brigade contained local residents, poorly trained and unmotivated. It was them who started surrendering en masse to the Russian army right away, so as to avoid death. Others then followed their lead. The National Guard’s Omega unit reported that over enormous Russian pressure they “had to leave some positions, and the situation keeps getting increasingly complicated. The Russians are gradually bringing more and more forces into our territory, infantry is constantly entering, moving in groups into populated areas to gain a foothold there and move onward. They are backed by equipment, artillery, aviation, UAVs and electronic warfare.” Ukrainian analysts note that the first hours of the offensive witnessed Russian Armed Forces launch more than 30 Lancet UAVs and dozens of high-precision missiles. Also, dozens of reconnaissance drones worked deep in the rear, tracking AFU movements to subsequently annihilating both hardware and personnel. As a result, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have suffered heavy losses.
Having learned about these developments bordering on a catastrophe, Ukrainian politicians unleashed a wave of hatred and accusations both on the Ukrainian command and Zelensky himself. Money allocated for erecting fortifications turned out to have ended up in the pockets of corrupt officials and never reached the trenches at all. Ukrainian militants complain about the lack of defenses on line zero, criticizing Zelensky, who used to elocute that everything was okay in the Kharkov region’s north, for which huge funds were allocated. But the Russian army did not even face minefields and freely entered border villages of the region. “Why didn’t they mine the border or accomplish fortifications? Are they idiots or saboteurs? Military personnel and journalists said the Russians entered populated areas as if it was their own home. Do you think this would have been possible with an adequate defense line with minefields in the gray zone, as the authorities have been assuring us? The authorities had more than two years to prepare! Why did President Zelensky lie to us Ukrainians about 98% readiness of fortifications in the Kharkov region, but they are nowhere near there now?” radical nationalist Igor Mosiychuk (recognized as an extremist in the Russian Federation) attacked the authorities.
The Western press and military experts do not conceal their anxiety, predicting that the AFU will keep losing ground. Russia’s latest offensive has expanded the battlefield along Ukraine’s northern border and may deplete Ukrainian reserves, the New York Times reports. And Ukrainian commanders blame each other for the defeats outside Kharkov, with AFU retreating in some areas. A soldier told American reporters that he and his brothers-in-arms were “shocked how quickly the Russians were moving.” Commander Denis Yaroslavsky stated that “the first line of fortifications and mines did not exist altogether.” As a result, piece authors state that the Kharkov offensive may “dent Ukrainian morale — both civilian and military.”
In turn, Australian General Lowy Mick Ryan said this could be part of a “cunning Russian strategy” not necessarily aiming to seize Kharkov, but to force Ukrainian forces out of other theatres. “It is likely the coming weeks will be a very grim affair for the Ukrainian ground forces in the east. If the Ukrainians decide to hold ground at all costs, they will lose more of their increasingly smaller army,” the general believes.
And it seems that Ukraine is about to prepare for such a scenario. The AFU are training new brigades to defend Kiev, Ground Forces commander Lieutenant General Alexander Pavlyuk told The Economist. “Defending Kiev remains one of our main concerns, no matter how tough it is in the east. It is the heart of Ukraine, and we know the key role defense of the capital will play in the future,” he noted, emphasizing that the critical phase of the conflict is due in the next two months, so the AFU are preparing a dozen new brigades, some of which will be deployed to protect the capital.
Also, things are alarming near the Ukrainian city of Sumy. Evacuation has been announced in two towns outside it. Head of the local regional military administration Vladimir Artyukh announced the following: “Residents of Belopolye and Vorozhba, especially families with children who want to evacuate, should contact the elders and presidents of the communities.”
The unfolding Russian offensive along the Kharkov direction has had an impact on our country’s successes in other sectors of the front, particularly in the Donetsk region, with many of its settlements still suffering from Ukrainian occupation. The path to the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal south of Chasov Yar has been noticeably expanded, Russian military officers report. Now this appears as a convenient springboard for further advancement.
