100,000 troops not enough for Kharkiv offensive: Ukrainian military suggest what Russia needs to capture city 

Ivan Shevtsov, head of the press service of the 15th Mobile Border Guard Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (assault brigade of the Steel Frontier Offensive Guard), told Espreso TV channel.

"At present, the Russian grouping of about 100,000 personnel is stationed in Lyman-Kupyansk direction. However, this is not enough to conduct an active offensive on Kharkiv. To capture Kharkiv, the enemy needs to accumulate at least 400,000-500,000 personnel in its area. We are not seeing this now. There is also no large amount of equipment. So there is no need to worry yet. But the enemy may have such a plan, and we should not ignore it. We have to prepare for any development," Shevtsov said.

Kharkiv is located close to the Russian state border. However, to get there, the Russian army must pass through well-equipped fortifications and structures, he noted.

"The distance from Russia to Kharkiv is 40 km. We had enough time to dig in deep. Currently, there are no prerequisites for the enemy to take offensive actions in the direction of Kharkiv," Shevtsov added.

• The Centre for Countering Disinformation stated that the information about Russian forces allegedly preparing to attack Kharkiv is not true, calling it a fear-mongering campaign.