Last week, Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s northern border with such speed and force that Ukraine’s meager fortifications offered virtually no obstacles. Some Ukrainian soldiers, taken completely by surprise, withdrew from their positions, and the villages liberated almost two years earlier were suddenly the target of incessant shelling, forcing hundreds of people to flee in scenes reminiscent of the early days. of the war.
“They are wiping out the streets,” said Tetiana Novikova, 55, a retired factory worker who said she barely survived Friday when her village of Vovchansk came under devastating fire from Russian forces. As she fled the village where she had spent her entire life, she said, no Ukrainian soldiers were in sight.
The incredible incursion into the Kharkiv region highlights the challenges facing Ukraine’s exhausted and barely deployed forces as Russia steps up its summer offensive. Russian troops crossing the border enjoyed a huge advantage in artillery shells and used air power, including fighter jets and heavy glide bombs, to disastrous effect, unhindered by air defenses exhausted Ukrainian women.
Once across the border, Russian soldiers easily overcame fortifications – such as trenches, landmines and anti-tank barriers – some of which Ukrainian troops said were insufficient or poorly constructed.
But the biggest challenge for Ukrainian forces is people. Crushed by more than two years of war, Ukraine’s military is struggling to muster enough troops to effectively defend the 600-mile front line, even as Russian forces have increased by thousands of newly mobilized soldiers.
As the scale of the Russian offensive became clear over the weekend, the Ukrainian army moved quickly to divert its troops from other areas of the front, rather than deploy reserves. The reason, according to Ukrainian officials: there are few reserves to deploy.
Ukrainian military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military details, said the situation in the Kharkiv region was critical, but under control. On Saturday, Ukrainian forces appeared to have slowed the Russian advance, although heavy fighting was reported along a ribbon of territory eight kilometers from the Russian border.
By Saturday, nearly 10,000 residents of the Kharkiv region had fled the fighting, according to the regional governor, and residents reported that entire villages had been wiped out. As Russian troops advance, there are fears that for the first time in nearly two years they could find themselves within artillery range of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The Russians “know what they are doing,” said a Ukrainian commander, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the incursion. He added that he felt sorry for the civilians who thought they were safe.
For months, Russia has been strengthening its troops along Ukraine’s northern border, with 50,000 troops deployed in the area around the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, according to Kostiantyn Mashovets, a Ukrainian military analyst. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov signaled Moscow’s intentions when he said Kharkiv “plays an important role” in President Vladimir V. Putin’s stated desire to create a “sanitary zone” along from the Russian border.
Top Ukrainian officials appeared to take the danger seriously, with President Volodymyr Zelenksy conducting a highly choreographed tour of the fortifications around Kharkiv on April 9.
“We must be prepared,” Mr. Zelenksy said. “And the Russians need to see that we are ready to defend ourselves. And our people must understand that Ukraine is ready in case the enemy tries to attack.”
These preparations did little to mitigate the Russian attack. Part of the problem is restrictions on the use of sophisticated American weapons. Although Ukrainian forces may have seen a buildup on the border, the White House’s ban on the use of high-precision U.S. weapons, such as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, against targets on Russian territory has prevented the Ukraine to attack them.
Then there is the disadvantage that Ukraine has been at since the start of the war: it faces a much larger country with a considerable advantage in manpower and a vast arsenal of weapons. Weapons are constantly restocked by a defense industry operating on a record budget.
Some Ukrainian officials said fortifying areas near the border was almost impossible because of Russian bombing. But, they add, stronger defensive lines, built further from the border, have so far resisted the Russian assault.
Iryna Sykhina, 42, from Lyptsi, a town about 10 miles north of Kharkiv, said she realized something was different and wrong in the early hours of last Friday when her village was been the target of incessant Russian bombings. “They were hitting the whole village at the same time, not just every now and then like before,” she said in a telephone interview.
Ms Sykhina said she saw concrete blocks and machinery being moved along a road in front of her house, as part of what she thought were fortification preparations.
“But actually, as far as I know, nothing has been built,” Ms Sykhina said.
Once the Russians opened their attack, some points along the Ukrainian lines buckled and troops fled amid intense bombardment, said Denys Yaroslavsky, a lieutenant in the 57th Brigade.
“There are many other questions for those who were responsible for building the front line fortifications, those who were supposed to operate it and reinforce it,” he said.
Vovchansk Mayor Tamaz Gambarashvili insisted in an interview that his city was prepared for an incursion. “I’ve been in this city all the time and I can say that we were ready to welcome the Russians and the fortifications were finished,” he said in an interview last week.
The fortifications, he explained, were not built of concrete “because Russia was constantly bombing everything we built,” but he added, “the handmade ones were prepared to the maximum.” .
Officials and military analysts say Russia likely does not have sufficient forces to take the city of Kharkiv. After nearly two years of relative tranquility, long-range missile attacks now occur daily, killing and injuring civilians. Russia appears to be counting on its numerical superiority to push Ukrainian forces to the breaking point.
Russia now has about 510,000 troops engaged in the fight, according to an analysis released this week by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. These numbers are enough to launch attacks along the entire length of the front line, constantly throwing Ukrainian forces off balance as they struggle to respond to multiple incursions.
“Russia’s goal is not to make a big breakthrough, but rather to convince Ukraine that it can continue its inexorable advance, kilometer by kilometer, along the front,” the analysis says.
New weapons expected to arrive under the Biden administration’s $61 billion weapons program, including artillery shells and air defense munitions, should help ease some of the pressure on Ukrainian forces, as did a new mobilization campaign by the Ukrainian government, which lowered the age of war. conscription at 25.
The question now, as the summer fighting season begins in earnest, is whether this will be enough to halt Russia’s momentum.
For residents of Ukraine’s northern border, the pressure is difficult to bear. Much of the region was quickly occupied in the first days of the Russian invasion, which began in February 2022. But Ukrainian forces pushed them back six months later in a stunning offensive operation that now appears to be a climax of the war.
Villages and settlements in the region have long been subject to intermittent Russian bombardment, and many residents have fled. Yet those who remained said they were taken by surprise by the assault and rapid advance of Russian troops.
“People were preparing for summer, tending their gardens, taking care of their livestock,” Lyptsi village council member Krystyna Havran said in an interview. “No one imagined there would be an offensive.”
Marc Santora reports contributed.
