Ukraine’s forces have recaptured some territory amid an effort to fend off a fierce Russian offensive in the country’s Kharkiv region.
Kyiv’s forces retook territory near the city of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, where Russian troops have been focusing their efforts in the past weeks, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said Wednesday.
Russian forces were advancing steadily into the Kharkiv region after kickstarting an offensive on May 10, as recently approved U.S. military aid for Kyiv trickled into the war-torn country. Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said the situation in the region was “on the edge” and was moving “toward critical” every hour, according to a May 14 New York Times report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 16 that Moscow’s forces had advanced some 6 miles into the region but that his forces were successfully stabilizing the situation. “In the directions of some enemy brigades, there is no progress at all,” he said.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said Thursday that Moscow’s forces are “completely bogged down” in street battles for Vovchansk after suffering “very heavy losses.”
“At the moment, the enemy from different directions is overthrowing reserves, trying to support active assault actions, but unsuccessfully,” he said in a statement on his social media channels.
In its new analysis of the war, the ISW said geolocated footage published on Wednesday indicates that Ukrainian forces pushed Russian forces from several houses and marginally advanced within northeastern Vovchansk, “highlighting the dynamic nature of the combat situation in the settlement.”
“The spokesperson for a Ukrainian unit operating in the Kharkiv direction stated that Ukrainian forces control most of Vovchansk and that Russian forces are conducting assaults in squad-sized infantry groups,” the think tank said.
The ISW also said Kyiv’s forces recaptured territory near the eastern city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. The think tank said in March that its capture by Moscow “would offer Russian forces limited but not insignificant operational benefits if they could achieve it.”
“Geolocated footage published on May 21 indicates that Ukrainian forces recently recaptured several buildings in the eastern part of the Kanal Microraion (easternmost Chasiv Yar),” the ISW said.
