Russia has lost its 'window of opportunity': expert on situation in Kharkiv region

He said this on Espreso TV.

"Destabilizing is the maximum that the Russians can do in the Kharkiv sector. Today, 50,000 troops is what the enemy has on the 700-kilometer stretch of the border with Ukraine. That is, Russia has 30,000 of that grouping in the Kharkiv region. In addition to the 50,000 total grouping, they also had 400 armored vehicles there, but they decided to divide it proportionally. Accordingly, such a force structure will be enough for the Russians only to demonstrate breakthrough attempts. For a certain regularity of shelling of the border areas, but definitely not for a breakthrough," Kyrychevskyi emphasized.

According to the military expert, there may be prolonged battles with Russians on the border, but a breakthrough to Kharkiv is out of the question.

"Given that the Russians started the attack at 5 a.m. and there have been no reports of a breakthrough in the Ukrainian defense, we can state that if the Russians failed to break through in the first 12 hours, they have already lost their window of opportunity.

Unfortunately, the Kharkiv direction will be another hot spot where the Ukrainian Armed Forces will divert their attention. But these 30,000 enemy troops would have complicated the situation in other hot spots. The Russians decided to spend this force irrationally in an attempt to jeopardize the Kharkiv region’s border and get a natural result, i.e. failure to achieve their goals," Kyrychevskyi said.

• According to the Ministry of Defense, at around 5 a.m., Russia tried to break through the Ukrainian defense in the Kharkiv region.
• On May 10, the border communities of the Kharkiv region came under intense shelling by the Russian Federation. One person was killed and several wounded.