Russia attacked the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine

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Russian forces have launched an offensive into the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine as Moscow looks to take advantage of its superior weapons and manpower before more US military aid arrives.

Kyiv’s Defense Ministry said Russian armored units attempted to breach Ukrainian defenses early Friday morning after launching attacks. artillery and air strikes around Vovchansk, a town 70km northeast of Kharkov.

“As of now, these attacks have been repelled; Battles of varying intensity continue,” the ministry said on social media platform X. “Reserve units have been deployed to strengthen defenses in this area. The Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to prevent enemy attacks.”

In a speech Saturday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were consolidating their positions in the northern Kharkiv region and fighting continued in seven northern villages around Pylna.

“Our troops are conducting counter-attacks there on the second day,” Zelenskyy said.

He said the situation in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region was also “extremely difficult”.

Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said the “unsuccessful attempts by sabotage and reconnaissance groups to break through the lines” came after an all-night shelling of the area with artillery and glide bombs. .

Footage geolocated by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War showed Russian forces made minor tactical gains on Friday, capturing Pylna village in the northern Kharkiv region of Ukraine. Russia also appears to have advanced further, albeit incrementally, to the south, west and east of Pylna, occupying about 35 square meters of territory.

However, Ukraine said it had repelled Russian forces. Synehubov said that Russia had not captured a single village on Friday and that “fierce fighting” continued in the villages of Pylna, Strilcha and Borysivska, which he described as a “gray zone”.

Ukrainian officials and Western analysts have predicted for several weeks that Russian forces could launch a cross-border attack into Ukraine’s Kharkiv or Sumy regions. So far, Russia has concentrated its attacks in the eastern region of Donetsk, especially around the surrounding area. strategically important town of Chasiv Yar.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, told reporters that Russia would likely increase the “intensity” of its activities near Kharkiv, in an effort to create a “shallow buffer zone” along Ukraine’s border with Russia.

Although Moscow has some advantages because of the shortfall in US funding for Ukraine earlier this year, he said he does not expect Moscow to make any “breakthroughs” when it comes to US military aid. is returning and predicting that Ukraine will “withstand” Russian attacks. This year.

A Ukrainian military official told the Financial Times on Wednesday that Russia is preparing for attacks along the northeastern front line to withdraw Ukrainian forces from Donetsk, which they are having difficulty holding. defense lines, with forces overwhelmed in terms of weapons and numbers. Parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as Donbas, have been occupied since 2014.

Major General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy director of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, told The Economist last week that Russia has 35,000 troops from the northern group stationed across the border from Kharkiv and is looking to increase their numbers to as many as 50,000. . He said this would not be enough to seize Kharkiv but could allow Moscow to conduct a “rapid entry and exit operation.”

Analysts believe that a Russian attack of this type would be aimed at creating a buffer zone along the border or as a “corrective operation” to force Ukraine to divert its forces from the country. main defense effort in the Donbass region.

Frontelligence, an analysis group run by a former Ukrainian officer, said Russian forces had crossed the border near the Ukrainian village of Strilcha, west of Vovchansk, and had seized several nearby settlements.

“This was a predictable move to divert Ukraine’s resources from Russia’s main offensive in Donbas. Considering the shortage of human resources, Ukraine will be forced to redeploy some personnel.” the group posted on X

Russian forces will likely “deploy additional units to infiltrate additional border areas or to consolidate initial successes” but have yet to breach Ukraine’s main defense line, located far from the border more, they added.

Russia may be trying to exploit the delay between US congressional approval 61 billion USD in aid to Ukraine last month and American weapons and ammunition arrived on the front lines.

Supply in Europe is also delayed. Czech President Petr Pavel said earlier this week that an emergency shipment of artillery shells donated by EU countries will now arrive in Ukraine in June. He told German broadcaster ARD that procurement efforts were led by the Czech Republic. The start was delayed by Russian “countermeasures.”

Ukraine is also about to expand mobilization efforts to add more soldiers to its armed forces, with new laws set to take effect later this month.