FALCON POWERS – On Friday, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces warned of “fierce battles” looming on the new war front in the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is carving out a “buffer zone” there.
Last Friday, Russian forces attacked the north of the Kharkiv region, penetrating up to 10 kilometers and weakening the numerically inferior Ukrainian forces, who have been trying to maintain the frontline along the expansive front for nearly 27 months since the invasion. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the attack expanded the combat zone by around 70 kilometers and that Russia launched the incursion ahead of schedule after “noticing the deployment of our forces”.
The Ukrainian military commander wrote in a Telegram post: “We expect fierce battles, and the enemy is preparing for this.”
Russian forces are maintaining the initiative on the battlefield, slowly advancing in the east, taking advantage of the numerical shortage of Ukrainian troops and the delay in the arrival of Western weapons supplies for months. During a visit to China, Putin said Russian forces are establishing a “buffer zone” in northeastern Ukraine to protect the Russian border areas, but said control of the city of Kharkiv is not part of Russia’s current plan.
Faced with Russian air raids throughout the war, Kyiv has rapidly developed drones and missiles, striking facilities in Russia that it says are used to assist in shelling Ukrainian towns, cities, and energy infrastructure.
The mayor of Kharkiv said a Russian missile strike on Friday killed two people and injured 13 others.
Putin, who made the remarks at a press conference during his China visit, said Russia’s recent advances in the Kharkiv region were in response to Ukraine’s shelling of Russian border areas like Belgorod, where civilians have been killed.
He continued, “Civilians are dying there. It is clear that they are shelling the city center directly as well as residential areas. I have said publicly that if this continues, we will have to create a security belt or a buffer zone. This is what we are doing now.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told local media in remarks published on Friday that Russian forces had managed to advance 10 kilometers in one area of Kharkiv, despite the Ukrainian forces “stabilizing” the front.
