Ukraine assured on Friday that it had “stopped” the Russian assault on the Kharkiv region, which had been underway for two weeks, and had begun a counterattack in this sector of the northeast of the country where President Volodymyr Zelensky said he find.
The Russian army launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region from the border on May 10, seizing several localities and forcing Ukraine to deploy valuable reinforcements in the area.
After two weeks of fighting, Ukrainian defense forces stopped Russian troops
And carry out counter-offensive actions
said Colonel Igor Prokhorenko, an official of the Ukrainian general staff, on Friday.
He described the situation as difficult
but stable and under control
in this region where fighting is taking place in particular for control of the city of Vovtchansk, cut in two and where kyiv has accused Moscow of abuses.
The enemy is completely bogged down in street fighting in Vovchansk and has suffered very significant losses
General Oleksandr Syrsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, assured Friday, affirming that Moscow was sending reserves
to continue his assault.
Western procrastination
According to kyiv, Russia aims to extend until breaking the defensive lines of the Ukrainian forces, weakened by two years of war, the lack of new recruits and shortages of weapons due to months of Western procrastination.
Open in full screen mode
A Ukrainian serviceman transports a drone near the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.
Photo: Reuters / Inna Varenytsia
Since May 10, nearly 11,000 civilians have been forced to leave their homes in the region, Governor Oleg Synegubov said Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he would be in Kharkiv on Friday, notably for meetings on the defense of the region, especially in Vovchansk
.
The city and the entire region of Kharkiv deserve all our support, gratitude and respect
he wrote on social networks.
Regarding other sectors of the front, General Syrsky’s tone was more somber.
Further south in the Kharkiv region, the Russians have been on the attack near Kupiansk for almost a year, and now the situation is complicated in the Kyslivka sector, where the enemy is trying to break through our defenses and reach the Oskil River
.
In the Donbass, the officer reported fierce clashes in the direction of Chassiv Iar, Pokrovsk and Kurakhové where the Russians have been nibbling ground for months, without achieving a decisive breakthrough for the moment.
Finally, the most intense and violent fighting took place in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhové sectors. The enemy is trying to break through the defense of our troops on a narrow section of the front between Staromykhailivka and Berdychi
he clarified.
Buffer
Russia says it launched its May offensive in northeastern Ukraine to create a buffer zone meant to prevent Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.
Russian advances in recent days near Chassiv Yar seem to have increased since the offensive of May 10. Moscow notably claimed the capture of two villages on the outskirts that Ukraine had barely liberated last summer.
Open in full screen mode
Firefighters in Kharkiv after a Russian missile attack on May 10, 2024.
Photo: Reuters / Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy
The Kremlin is trying to take advantage of the fact that the opposing army has been weakened by losses and months of paralysis of American military aid.
In addition, Ukraine still lacks anti-aircraft defense means and is demanding that the Europeans and Americans finally authorize it to use the weapons provided to strike the army’s rear bases on Russian territory, something that the West has refused until now. here for fear of an escalation.
President Zelensky is therefore increasing his interventions, pressing his allies to provide him with anti-missile systems and to authorize him to strike military targets in Russia with Western munitions.
In the meantime, Russian forces continue to bombard Kharkiv, the country’s second city. Around fifteen missiles hit it on Thursday, killing seven civilians.
New bombings during the night from Thursday to Friday damaged the regional railway infrastructure, vital for the economy and travel in a country deprived of air links, particularly for more than two years.
Ukraine, for its part, continues to strike occupied areas, Russian regions and Crimea, annexed in 2014. The Russian governor of this peninsula, Sergei Aksionov, indicated that two civilians had been killed in the district of Simferopol, in the center of the peninsula.
