![Ukrainian soldiers in front of a building hit by Russian army bombing in Vovchansk (Ukraine), May 11, 2024.](https://img.lemde.fr/2024/05/12/0/0/4724/3149/664/0/75/0/72a382d_1715531737857-vdsc9383-a-05-24.jpg)
The Russian army has been carrying out attacks from the border in four directions north of the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine since dawn on May 10. After three days of intense fighting and bombardment, the Russian advance managed to form two pockets totaling approximately 130 km2 along the border, but it does not exceed 8 km in depth and has not pierced the main defense line protecting Kharkiv, where 1.3 million inhabitants still live, according to the regional governor, Oleh Synehoubov.
“Currently, the enemy is experiencing tactical successes”admitted, in a press release published Monday May 13 on Facebook, the Ukrainian general staff. Already, in the middle of the day on Sunday, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, had recognized, also on Facebook, that the situation north of Kharkiv had “considerably deteriorated”. But he also said: “We know the enemy’s plans and react flexibly to all his actions. »
The ability of the high command to anticipate opposing initiatives is not unanimous on the battlefield. Denis Yaroslavsky, a Ukrainian soldier from 1er mixed battalion of the 57e brigade fighting in Vovchansk, reported on Sunday on its Facebook page that “The fighting in the city has started and an encirclement attempt is underway. I say this because we may die and no one may know the truth.”. The soldier protests against the lack of adequate fortifications and defensive mining in the sector, a sign of unpreparedness and corruption. A source of World, also fighting in Vovchansk in another unit, confirms, dismayed, that “the defense of Vovchansk was not prepared” and “the necessary means are not in the area to block the offensive, while the Russians are deploying more and more forces in front of us.”
![Residents of Vovchansk (Ukraine) evacuated from the city bombed by the Russian army, May 11, 2024.](https://img.lemde.fr/2024/05/12/0/0/4724/3149/664/0/75/0/f934923_1715531737408-vdsc9122-a-05-24.jpg)
More than 4,000 civilians forced to flee
For several weeks, the Ukrainian authorities have been alerting public opinion to an imminent push towards Kharkiv, while ensuring that Russian troops were neither able to take nor surround the country’s second city. This new front, which adds to the general Russian push on a 400 km-long front further south from Kupiansk to Orikhiv, has already prompted more than 4,000 Ukrainian civilians to flee their homes.
The main town threatened by the Russian advance, Vovchansk, which had 18,000 inhabitants in 2021, experienced destruction in three days much greater than that suffered during its occupation by Russian forces during the first six months of the war.
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