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Advances through Russian forces have raised fears that they could take their artillery deep into the diversity of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
By Constant Méheut
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
Russian forces continued their brutal advance into northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, eventually reaching a village about 10 miles outside Kharkiv and raising fears that the city, Ukraine’s second-largest, may soon be within the diversity of Russian artillery.
The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that Russian troops had tried to break through its defenses near the village of Lyptsi, located directly north of Kharkiv. The attacks were repulsed, but the battlefield maps were compiled by independent teams who publicly analyzed them, and videos of the fighting were obtained. It shows that Russian troops have almost reached the outskirts of the village.
The Ukrainian Khartian brigade, which defends Lyptsi, posted a video on Telegram on Friday afternoon showing Russian infantrymen advancing on foot towards the village and attacking in small teams among the trees. The brigade said it targeted the Russians with rockets, forcing them to retreat.
Russian troops opened a new front in northeastern Ukraine a week ago, crossing the border and temporarily capturing a dozen settlements in what Ukrainian officials and military analysts described as a way to put pressure on already outnumbered Ukrainian forces.
The Khartia Brigade, for example, has been redeployed from a critical point on the front, around Ocheretyne, a village in the southeast. Russian forces captured Ocheretyne last month, creating a gap in Ukraine’s defenses.
But experts believe that another, perhaps more immediate, purpose for Russia may simply be to advance deep enough into Ukrainian territory to drive Kyiv’s forces off the border, creating a buffer zone that would prevent Ukrainians from attacking Russian cities with their artillery. Vladimir V. Putin claimed on Friday that this was the goal of the current offensive.
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