The Ukrainian’s chief military officer cautioned on the impending imminent “severe combat” at the recently established warfront in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, announced Moscow’s intention to establish a “protective zone” in the same territory.
Last Friday, the Russian military breached the northern part of Kharkiv region, advancing up to 10 km (6 miles), thereby unsettling the lesser Kyiv forces struggling to maintain control over a large front close to 27 months post the initial invasion.
Colonel-general Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that this intrusion extended the warzone by approximately 70 km, observing that Russia commenced its invasion earlier than planned upon recognising the positioning of Ukraine’s military.
Syrskyi, the chief of Ukrainian military, expressed through the Telegram app, that they anticipate heavy combat because the enemy is preparing for that. The Russians currently hold the upper hand on the warfront, gradually pushing forward in the east by capitalising on Ukraine’s dearth of troops and prolonged delays in arms supplies from the West.
Putin, during his official trip to China, clarified that Russia aims to set up a “buffer zone” in northeastern Ukraine in order to safeguard its border territories. However, he denied that capturing Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is currently on the agenda.
While tackling persistent Russian airstrikes, Kyiv hastened their production of drones and missiles, initiating attacks on locations within Russia they allege are supporting the war and bombing Ukrainian towns, cities, and power infrastructures.
The mayor of Kharkiv reported that a Russian missile attack on Friday resulted in two fatalities and 25 injuries within the city. In a press conference held in China, Putin justified the assault on the Kharkiv region as a response to Kyiv’s bombardment on Russian border areas like Belgorod, resulting in civilian deaths.
Putin remarked, “They are directly firing at the city core, at populated zones. And I openly stated that if this continues, we would be compelled to establish a safety zone, a buffer zone. That is currently the action we are taking.”
Russian troops have made a gain of 10km within the region of Kharkiv, despite a stabilisation of the front by Ukrainian defenses, as confirmed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday during a discussion with Ukrainian press. The Russian defence department has stated that 12 villages have been taken by its military in the current conflict.
The most severe Russian offenses have been identified in the eastern Donetsk region, this has been ascertained via data sourced by the Ukrainian General Staff who also revealed that the Pokrovsk front has seen the majority of regular attacks in the latest period.
Ukrainian forces, according to Mr Syrskyi, are preparing defenses for a predicted attack by Russia in the Sumy region, situated over 100km north of Kharkiv. This would open a new front line in the ongoing conflict. It has been reported by Kyiv that Russian military units of small scale are located close to this area. Volodymyr Artiukh, the military administrator for Sumy region, has commented that Russian military activity is systematic in nature, with shellings along the border occurring with 200-400 explosions occurring daily. Additionally, they noted an elevated intensity from enemy sabotage groups.
Amidst an expanding conflict, Ukraine is struggling with military resources. To remedy the situation, President Zelenskiy passed a law on Friday, permitting specific groups of convicts to serve in the military as stated on the parliament’s webpage. This act could potentially introduce a maximum of 20,000 individuals to the armed forces, Kyiv officials have estimated. Further to this, the President instituted stricter penalties for draft evasion.
On the Russian side, it was reported that an unusually high number of overnight drone strikes were launched by Ukraine, causing two fatalities in the Belgorod region and setting alight an oil refinery in Tuapse on the Black Sea. These assaults were aimed towards an electricity hub in Crimea, an oil depot and train station in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, and the Tuapse refinery. Ukraine’s military confirmed it had neutralised all 20 drone attacks from Russia aimed at the regions Kharkiv, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Maxar, a commercial satellite firm based in the US, has provided imagery highlighting the damage inflicted by a Ukrainian long-range attack on the Belbek airbase, which is under Moscow’s control, in Crimea earlier this week. The images revealed that three Russian airplanes and a nearby fuel station were destroyed by the strike. According to a Reuters report.
(Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024)