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Russia launched a major attack in the northeast region of Kharkiv, Ukraine.
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Kiev said Russia was attacking positions with guided bombs, artillery and armored attacks.
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Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces responded to the attack, but “a fierce battle is ongoing.”
Russian forces launched a new attack in the northeast region of Kharkiv, Ukraine, using artillery, bombs and armored vehicles to try to break through Kiev’s defensive lines.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense he said Friday that it has managed to repel Russia’s attacks so far, but noted that “battles of varying intensity continue.” Kiev said its forces were defending strongholds in the Kharkiv region and that reserve units had been sent to the area. There are fears this could be part of a renewed push for the city of Kharkiv, which Russia failed to capture in the early months of the war.
Moscow’s forces last day used guided aerial bombs to carry out attacks around Vovchansk, a small town near the border with Russia, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. The city is dozens of kilometers northwest of the front lines.
On Thursday night, Russia increased pressure by using artillery to attack Ukraine’s first defensive lines, the Defense Ministry said. This morning, Moscow attempted to use armored vehicles to break through the lines.
“Ukraine met them there with our troops, brigades and artillery. It is important that they can increase their forces and bring more troops in this direction. This is a fact,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. he saidconfirming the attack during a press conference on Friday with his Slovak counterpart in Kiev.
“But our army and our military command were aware of this and calculated their capabilities to meet the enemy with fire. Now a fierce battle is underway,” Zelenskyy added.
The Russian attack raises fears that the war, which has long been fought in eastern and southern Ukraine, could expand to a new front in the north, which could be testing the weaknesses of Ukraine’s defenses. It also follows warnings from authorities and experts that Moscow had been accumulating strength in the area.
Russian airstrikes and shelling over a few days could locate and destroy Ukrainian positions. “In the worst case, this creates favorable conditions for the compromise of armored vehicles,” said Dara Massicot, an expert on the Russian military at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. he wrote in X.
Analysts at the think tank Institute for the Study of War observed that the new operation is unlikely to result in Russia taking Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, which has been the target of intense airstrikes in recent weeks. Analysts said Moscow did not have enough troops in the area and had not attempted to attack the city from multiple directions. This may, however, change in the future.
Instead, Russia’s ongoing operation likely has other objectives, analysts said. These include immobilizing Ukrainian forces in the northeast to create opportunities for Moscow to advance in other sectors of the front line, as well as creating a buffer zone in the area. This could allow Russia to defend itself against cross-border attacks.
Andrii Kovalenko, head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the Russian attack resembles a large-scale simulated attack with limited forces carrying out combat reconnaissance.
Moscow lost troops and equipment, Kovalenko he wrote in the Telegram messaging app. Business Insider could not immediately confirm this.
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