Has the Ukrainian army succeeded in turning the situation around Kharkiv around? In any case, this is what the Ukrainian military command asserts, which assured this Friday that it had “stopped” the Russian assault in the region, underway for two weeks, and had begun a counterattack in this northern sector. -east of the country where the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he was.
The Russian army launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region from the border on May 10, seizing several localities and forcing Ukraine to deploy valuable reinforcements in the area. After two weeks of fighting, “the Ukrainian defense forces have stopped the Russian troops” and “are carrying out counter-offensive actions”, Colonel Igor Prokhorenko, an official of the Ukrainian General Staff, said on Friday. He described the situation as “difficult” but “stable and under control” in this region where fighting is taking place in particular for control of the city of Vovchansk, cut in two and where kyiv has accused Moscow of abuses.
“The enemy is completely bogged down in street fighting in Vovchansk and has suffered very significant losses,” General Oleksandr Syrsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, assured Friday, affirming that Moscow was sending “reserves” to continue his assault. Volodymyr Zelensky himself is in Kharkiv this Friday, notably for meetings on the “defense of the region, in particular in Vovchansk”. “The city and the entire region of Kharkiv deserve all our support, gratitude and respect,” he wrote on social networks.
Other front lines still under tension
According to kyiv, Russia aims to extend until breaking the defensive lines of the Ukrainian forces, weakened by two years of war, the lack of new recruits and shortages of weapons due to months of Western procrastination. And if the situation near the city of Kharkiv seems to be improving, when it comes to other sectors of the front, General Syrsky’s tone was more somber. Further south, still in the Kharkiv region, the Russians have been on the attack near Kupiansk for almost a year, and now “the situation is complicated in the Kyslivka sector, where the enemy is trying to break through our defenses and d ‘reach the Oskil River’.
In the Donbass, the officer reported fierce clashes in the direction of Chassiv Iar, Pokrovsk and Kurakhové, where the Russians have been nibbling ground for months, without achieving a decisive breakthrough for the moment. Finally, “the most intense and violent fighting is taking place in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhové sectors. The enemy is trying to break through the defense of our troops on a narrow section of the front between Staromykhaïlivka and Berdytchi,” he said. He specifies.
In the Donetsk region, Russian advances in recent days near the town of Chassiv Iar, a major Kremlin objective, seem to be increasing since the May 10 offensive. Moscow notably claimed the capture of two villages on the outskirts that Ukraine had barely liberated last summer.
Putin ready for a ceasefire… on his terms
The Kremlin is trying to take advantage of the fact that the opposing army has been weakened by losses and months of paralysis of American military aid. In addition, Ukraine still lacks anti-aircraft defense means, and is demanding that the Europeans and Americans finally authorize it to use the weapons provided to strike the army’s rear bases on Russian territory. And if the West has always refused to do so until now, for fear of an escalation, the idea of letting the Ukrainian army do its thing is starting to gain ground, particularly in Washington.
This last point could mark a real tipping point for the rest of the war, while the Ukrainian army is already increasing strikes in occupied areas of its territory, in Russian border regions or even in Crimea, annexed in 2014. a turn that could put Russia in difficulty, which Vladimir Putin seems to understand. According to the American press agency Reuterswho was able to speak with four well-informed Russian sources about the Kremlin autocrat’s discussions with his advisors, the latter today says he is ready to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine… on the basis of current battlefield lines.
“Putin can fight as long as it takes, but he is also ready for a ceasefire, to freeze the war,” declared one of these four people, a high-ranking Russian source who has worked with Putin and is aware of the dealings at the highest levels in the Kremlin. Two of the sources said Putin would also agree that the gains made so far in the war were enough to sell a victory to the Russian people.
Does a possible ceasefire then seem possible? Unlikely, when we know the position of Volodymyr Zelensky on the subject, who was very doubtful at the beginning of last March regarding this possible Russian proposal. “We must understand that a pause in the fighting is not peace talks, but a way for Putin to take a breath. It would be an additional possibility for him to restore the military capacity of his army , in difficulty today, in particular so that he can carry out training missions for his young soldiers called to the front, who come today to war unprepared. […] For all this, he needs time,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with BFMTV. And even if the Russian army has since regained the initiative on the front, it is difficult to imagine why the Ukrainian president would have changed his mind.