Russia launches ground offensive into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: is new front opened?

On May 10, the Russian army began its cross-border offensive against two communities in the Kharkiv region. There have been no significant battles here since the fall of 2022, when the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to liberate the entire Kharkiv region from the occupying Russian troops.

For a long time, a new army grouping called “North” has been forming along the 400 km-long Ukrainian border in the Kursk and Kharkiv regions of Russia, which sooner or later was to launch an offensive against Kharkiv region. This army has more than 50,000 troops, 400 tanks, about a thousand armored vehicles and artillery.

However, this time Ukraine was ready, and the offensive was stopped. At the same time, fearing intense shelling, authorities began to evacuate people from the city of Vovchansk. According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the Russian occupation army wants to create a 10-kilometer buffer zone on the territory of Ukraine.

Will Russian forces be able to capture Kharkiv?

The Russian grouping of troops in this area has increased by as much as 4,000. This is obviously not enough for a full-scale offensive, and therefore, most likely, they are talking about raids deep into Ukraine to distract Ukrainian reserves. The Russians have simply copied the tactics the Russian Volunteer Corps used a few months ago.

Military experts also believe that the Russian forces do not have enough resources to launch a full-scale attack on Kharkiv.

“Russian occupation troops do not have the resources to conduct a general military operation to encircle and capture Kharkiv, but they will continue the tactics of strikes on the city and especially on the border zone, as well as undertake sabotage and terrorist sorties of company groups into the border zone,” Ukrainian military expert Oleksand Kovalenko said.

However, the experts agree that Russia can use a new attack to divert Ukrainian resources and create a new humanitarian disaster — scorched earth in the north of the Ukrainian-Russian border.