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Analysts believe an offensive in the Kharkiv or Sumy regions could push Ukrainian troops to the limit and allow Moscow to break through.
By Constant Méheut
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
Senior Ukrainian military officials have warned that Russia is amassing troops near northeastern Ukraine, raising fears that a new offensive is imminent in a region that has a point of tension for tense Ukrainian forces.
Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said Thursday that Moscow was redeploying its troops to Vovchansk and Lyptsi, two villages near the city of Kharkiv that Russian forces have been trying to capture for more than two weeks. Other officials also said Russia had massed its troops further north, facing Ukraine’s Sumy region, in preparation for a possible ground offensive in that region.
“These forces are not enough to launch a full-scale offensive and break through our defenses,” General Syrsky wrote on Facebook on Thursday. However, he added, a reshuffling of Ukrainian defenses in the region is underway to prepare to repel attacks.
The Russian incursion across the border into Kharkiv has posed a worrying risk to the Ukrainian army, which is already under constant attack further southeast in the Donbass. Commanders were forced to move their troops north to reinforce their defenses until the western guns were sufficient to make an impact.
The regrouping of Russian troops north of the border near the city of Sumy, about 145 kilometers northwest of Kharkiv, makes the scenario even more precarious, expanding the amount of territory Ukraine will have to defend. Analysts believe that an offensive in Kharkiv or the Sumy regions may simply push Ukrainian troops to the breaking point and allow Russia to break through.
Earlier this month, Russian forces opened a front in the northeastern Kharkiv region, breaking through the region’s weak Ukrainian defenses and temporarily capturing a dozen settlements. Ukraine managed to halt the Russian advance by slowly retreating to more fortified positions.
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