Firefighters work on the web site of a Russian missile assault, amid Russia’s assault on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Could 10, 2024. | Picture credit score: Reuters
Russian forces started a brand new floor assault in northeastern Ukraine, killing and wounding a number of individuals and forcing greater than 1,700 civilians to evacuate from the Kharkiv area, officers stated on Could 11.
Artillery, mortar and aerial bombardment hit greater than 30 completely different cities and cities, leaving not less than three useless and 5 wounded, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov stated.
Ukraine despatched reinforcements to the Kharkiv area on Could 10 to cease a Russian try to breach native defenses, officers stated.
Ukrainian forces additionally launched a barrage of drones and missiles on the night time of Could 11, Russia’s Protection Ministry stated, with air protection techniques taking pictures down 21 rockets and 16 drones over the Russian areas of Belgorod, Kursk and Volgograd. One individual was killed in a drone strike within the Belgorod area and one other within the Kursk area, native officers stated.
One other assault set hearth to an oil depot in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk area, killing three individuals and wounding eight extra, Leonid Pasechnik, the area’s Moscow-based chief, stated on the messaging app Telegram on Could 11. .
Russian forces intensified their bombing raids on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, in late March. The Could 10 assault marked a tactical shift within the warfare by Moscow that Ukrainian officers had been anticipating for weeks.
Russian navy bloggers stated the assault may mark the beginning of a Russian try to create a “buffer zone” that President Vladimir Putin promised to create earlier this yr to cease frequent Ukrainian assaults on Belgorod and different Russian border areas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on the night of Could 10 that Russian forces have been increasing their operations. He additionally known as on the nation’s Western allies to make sure that promised deliveries of navy assist attain the entrance strains shortly.
“It’s crucial that companions help our warfighters and Ukrainian resilience with well timed deliveries. “They’re actually well timed,” he stated in a video assertion about X. “A bundle that basically helps is the precise supply of weapons to Ukraine, slightly than simply the announcement of a bundle.”
Kremlin forces have repeatedly tried to take advantage of ammunition and personnel shortages in Ukraine because the stream of Western navy assist to kyiv has slowed in latest months, with promised new help but to reach.
Ukraine beforehand stated it was conscious that Russia was gathering hundreds of troops alongside the northeastern border close to the Kharkiv and Sumy areas. Intelligence officers additionally stated they anticipated an assault there, though Russia’s most up-to-date floor offensive had targeted on components of japanese Ukraine additional south.
Whereas Russia’s advances within the area have thus far been restricted, analysts on the US assume tank Institute for the Examine of Battle described them on Friday as “tactically important.”
They stated that Russia had solely “dedicated comparatively restricted manpower to its preliminary assaults” however that the offensive in Kharkiv “is meant to… (appeal to) Ukrainian manpower and materiel from different crucial sectors of the entrance in japanese Ukraine.” Ukraine”.
The Russian navy may additionally attempt to reduce off key provide routes and attempt to blockade Kharkiv, residence to about 1.1 million individuals and solely about 30 kilometers south of the border.
Within the early days of the warfare, Russia made an unsuccessful try to shortly assault Kharkiv, however withdrew from its outskirts after a few month. Within the fall of 2022, seven months later, the Ukrainian military expelled them from Kharkiv. The daring counterattack helped persuade Western international locations that Ukraine may defeat Russia on the battlefield and deserved navy help.
