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The army of Russia opened a new war front on Friday in Ukraine north of Kharkiv, the second most important city in the European country that had fallen at the start of the 2022 invasion, and which was later recovered in a counter-offensive that was described as humiliating for the Russians. This Monday, more than 30 cities in the region were attacked. In addition, almost 6,000 people have already been evacuated. This is one of the most difficult months for Ukraine this year.
The region of Kharkiv was freed from Russian occupation more than 18 months ago, but Friday dawned with intense bombings air and artillery.
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Russian forces they crossed the border that day along a 60-kilometer stretch, in an offensive aimed at Lyptsi It is Vovchansktwo cities located approximately 20 and 50 kilometers, respectively, northeast of Kharkiv.
If you fall LyptsiFrom that location, Russian forces could attack the city of Kharkiv with artillery.
“This is a nightmare for Kyiv for two reasons: first, they liberated this land from Russian forces 18 months ago; However, they clearly were unable to fortify the area sufficiently to prevent Moscow from returning as easily as they were expelled. And secondly, Russia can once again tie down the overstretched Ukrainian army with constant and exhausting pressure on Kharkivinflicting a brute bombing cost on a vast urban center,” noted a CNN analysis.
“The enemy is achieving tactical successes”confirmed on Monday the General Staff of the Ukraine in a statement published on Facebook and analyzed by the AFP agency.
Ukrainian authorities also confirmed that In this offensive, Russia is using “up to five battalions”.
According to the DeepState Telegram channel, close to the army Ukrainethe Russians have already managed to occupy around 100 km2, reported AFP.
DeepState said on Monday that The Russians “continue to advance towards Lyptsi. “The enemy infantry is under constant fire.”
“The enemy continues to advance towards Vovchansk. It is located on the outskirts and seeks to penetrate the city, which is suffering intense bombings. “Civilian evacuation is underway,” he added.
In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the units of the military group Sever (North) “improved their tactical position” at the expense of the 125th Territorial Defense Brigade of Ukraine. He added that the troops managed to advance towards Vovchansk.
Russia also said it had rejected counterattacks of several Ukrainian assault units, which would have lost up to 250 men, two tanks and twenty cars, according to EFE.
In turn, the Ukrainian General Staff reported on Monday that Russian battalions lost 1,740 men in the last 24 hours.
According to local media and Russian military bloggers cited by the EFE agency, Russian forces try to surround Vovchanskwhere the situation is “extremely difficult”, as the Ukrainian president admitted on Sunday Volodimir Zelensky.
Russia wants to regain positions in Kharkiv to neutralize Ukrainian artillery attacks against the border region of Belgorodwhere 15 people died on Sunday as a result of an attack on a residential building.
Zelensky He said on Sunday, in a message to the nation, that the Russian offensive on this second front aims to force Ukrainian troops to disperse and neglect other fronts.
“There are cities that have gone from being gray areas to becoming combat zones and the occupant tries to establish positions in some of them or simply use them to advance further”, he added. Zelensky.
According to Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian offensive efforts to capture Vovchansk are largely a consequence of the West’s tacit policy that Ukrainian forces cannot use Western-supplied systems to attack legitimate military targets within Russia.
An analysis by British journalist Nick Paton Walsh for CNN noted that this new front It’s another example of how bad things are for Ukraine this year.: its forces are little spread out, with much less artillery than the Russiansextremely inadequate air defenses and, above all, lack of soldiers. Their situation was worsened by the dry climate, which allows Russian mechanized units to move more easily, he said.
In turn, the Deputy Director of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, Major General Vadim Skibitskytold The Economist last week that His country’s problem “is very simple: we don’t have weapons. “They always knew that April and May would be difficult times for us.”
The soldier calculated that Russia currently has more than half a million men inside Ukraine or on its borders.
But Nick Paton Walsh emphasized that Russia He also knows that time is against him, because in about a month American aid will begin to flow to Ukraine product of the approved US$61 billion. Thus, the country of Zelensky Soon he will have the weapons he begged for.
“Putin appears to be throwing everything he can at, knowing that the fighting will likely only intensify for his forces next summer,” the British journalist wrote.
The Russian attack is led by Severa recently created military group.
George Barros of the Washington Institute for the Study of War told CNN that Sever is an “operationally significant group”.
“Russia tried to generate between 60,000 and 100,000 troops for its group to attack Kharkiv and we estimate that it is close to 50 thousand”, said Barros, but “it still has a lot of combat power”.
CNN specified that from this new force, armored infantry units attempted to cross the border into Ukraine. It added that available evidence suggests they were expected and suffered significant losses. But if more elite units join, Russia’s ambitions could grow by leaps and bounds. Kharkiv.
“This is just the beginning, the Russians have a base for future offensives,” a Ukrainian special forces unit told CNN over the weekend.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
