Russia has targeted Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, with the prospect of advancing on the regional capital, which is the country’s second-largest city after the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced on Friday that Moscow is trying to open a new front. But the intention could also be to create a security zone with the Russian border, since the advance is taking place from Belgorod, a Russian region north of Kharkiv that has been hit hard by Ukrainian artillery and drones during the conflict.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported yesterday Saturday the capture of five small Ukrainian towns close to this border. In a statement issued by the Department of Defense, it can be read: “As a result of offensive actions, the units of the Northern group of troops liberated the settlements of Borísovka, Ogurtsovo, Pleténevka, Pilnaya and Streletxia, from the region from Kharkiv”.
The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Sinehubov, rejected the Russian claims yesterday and stated that fighting continued in these five villages located between 3 and 5 kilometers from Russia. “Our forces have repelled new attacks”, he assured. The same was said by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, which has sent reinforcements to this area as the fighting grows for a second day.
The towns of Pleténevka and Ogurtsovo are near the Ukrainian city of Vovchansk (Volchansk, in Russian), with a population of 17,000 people at the beginning of the conflict. And the closest Russian towns are the city of Shebekino and the village of Novaya Tavoljanka, both in Belgorod. Two Russian armed groups that are fighting the Kremlin alongside Ukrainian troops arrived there in June last year, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the so-called Russian Freedom Legion. It was one of the raids in that region.
Because of these attacks, the governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said then that Russia should annex the Kharkiv region. The idea eventually reached the Kremlin, and last March Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a containment zone inside Ukrainian territory to protect Belgorod from bombings and border incursions.
On Friday, Zelensky assured that the Ukrainian army was ready to face the new Russian offensive. But in view of the increase in fighting in this area, the Ukrainian authorities announced the evacuation of Vovchansk yesterday. Governor Sinehubov reported that a total of 1,775 people had already moved away from the border. He added that three deaths and six injuries had been recorded in the region in the last day.
According to Sinehubov, the Russian offensive does not put the regional capital in danger at the moment, so, he pointed out, there is no need to evacuate the 1.3 million people who continue to live in the city. Kharkiv is 70 kilometers from Vovchansk.
A senior Ukrainian military commander told Reuters that Russian forces had advanced one kilometer into Ukrainian territory near Vovchansk. According to him, what they intend is to push back the Ukrainian troops 10 kilometers as part of an operation to create a security zone.
In a press conference, Zelenski assured on Friday that “Russia has started a new wave of counter-offensive actions in this area. There is a fierce battle”.
Ukraine pushed back Russian troops from most of the Kharkiv region during the 2022 campaign, following the start of the military campaign ordered by Putin in February of that year. After the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023, Russian forces have regained the initiative and gone on the offensive.
Kyiv continues to suffer from a significant lack of personnel and weaponry. While awaiting the arrival of new military aid approved by the United States last month ($61 billion), Russian troops are slowly but steadily advancing in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
In the latter, after taking the city of Avdiivka in February, they are now trying to break through the Ukrainian defenses of the city of Chassiv Iar to then move towards the cities of Kostiantinivka, Pokrovsk, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and control this entire region of eastern Ukraine.
