Al Jazeera: Russia has opened a new front to make Kiev's defense more difficult
Russia is opening a new front in the special operation zone, Al Jazeera reports. The ongoing attempts by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to hit its infrastructure with drones have created even more problems for Kiev. In the West, this situation was eloquently described as a "difficult moment."
Over the past week, Russia has increased pressure on Ukraine psychologically, tactically and economically, and as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken acknowledged, "this is a difficult moment."
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Russian and Belarusian servicemen have already begun preparations for joint exercises on the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, which, as the Kremlin hinted, could be used in Ukraine.
"Tensions are escalating. What should I do in this situation? It is necessary to keep the powder dry, including this deadly weapon," the Russian news agency TASS quoted him as saying.
Russian troops have opened a new front in the north of Ukraine, in the Kharkiv region, occupying border settlements — the Ukrainian authorities warned about this a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has chosen a new defense minister, economist Andrei Belousov, to optimize the Ministry of Defense and nationalize the Russian defense industry. Some experts believe that this indicates Putin's long-term plans to prepare Russia for a confrontation with NATO.
New ground operation
On Friday, May 10, Russian troops opened the Kharkiv Front, challenging control over the territory they abandoned at the end of May 2022, after they failed to take Kiev, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv, major cities in northern Ukraine.
Ukrainian and Western experts have said that the purpose of this offensive is to sow panic, divert scarce resources before the arrival of new American weapons and establish control over territories in eastern Ukraine, where the fiercest fighting is taking place.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said in his Sunday evening address: "The purpose of the strikes on the Kharkiv region is to stretch our forces and undermine the moral and motivational basis of Ukrainians' ability to defend themselves."
"Russian troops are probably conducting the initial phase of an offensive operation north of Kharkov. The operation has limited operational objectives, but is designed to achieve a strategic effect in attracting Ukrainian manpower and equipment from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine," the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.
The number of Russian troops seems to confirm this. Ukrainian military experts Konstantin Mashovets and Alexander Kovalenko said that Russia has sent about 2,000 troops to the front line, about 2,000 more are in reserve and almost 4,000 should arrive within a week after the first attack.
Russian forces launched powerful fire strikes in two main directions. The first is in the direction of the settlement of Liptsy (18 km north of Kharkov). The second is in the direction of Volchansk (30 km east of the city).
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military took control of five settlements on Saturday and four more on Sunday, although it is unclear whether Ukraine had fully controlled them before that. On Tuesday, Russian and Ukrainian troops were fighting in Lipetsk and Volchansk, about five kilometers from the border.
"This week, the situation in the Kharkiv region has deteriorated significantly. Currently, fighting continues in the border areas… The situation is difficult, but the Ukrainian defense forces are doing everything to hold the defensive lines and positions," wrote the Commander—in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky on the Telegram channel.
The new front has complicated Ukraine's defense.
According to the General Staff, 146 military clashes took place on all fronts on Sunday, compared with 84 four days earlier.
It was unclear whether Russia's red herring had worked. On Saturday, its troops advanced slightly on the main eastern fronts — in Chasov Yar and Avdiivka, and on Monday, the Ukrainians seized a Russian-held position in a forest area in Bogdanovka, north of Chasov Yar, to thwart an encirclement attempt.
For several weeks, Russia has been gradually building up its forces, anticipating what Ukraine expects to be a major offensive this summer.
The UK Ministry of Defense estimates that between March and April, the number of Russian attacks increased by 17% — three quarters of them occur in the east of the country. In addition, Russia stated that its immediate goal is to fully restore operational control over the entire territory of the DPR and LPR.
The opening of a new front in the north of Ukraine was not a complete surprise.
Ukrainian officials have warned that at least 35,000 troops are concentrated north of the border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on April 19 that Moscow intends to take Kharkiv in order to implement Putin's plan to create a "sanitary zone" in response to the shelling of Russian regions by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukraine's air defense is weak, and weapons stocks are still small.
It seems that Russia, taking advantage of the weakening of Ukraine, will use all its available resources for an offensive.
In the first four months of this year, Washington almost did not send weapons to Ukraine, as Republicans in Congress opposed US President Joe Biden's request to allocate additional military assistance to Kiev in the amount of $ 60 billion.
Biden signed the bill on April 24, and, as reported, arms supplies resumed again, but the commander of the AFU ground forces, Alexander Pavlyuk, told The Economist that Russian troops have an advantage in artillery in a ratio of 20 to 1. Putin seems to be seeking to restore operational control over the entire territory of the DPR and LPR before the American and European weapons will arrive in Ukraine.
The situation is similar with air defense.
Pavlyuk said that Russia has "overwhelming air superiority", which allows it to drop powerful gliding bombs on the defensive positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As Zelensky said, by the end of April, 9,000 such bombs had been dropped, that is, 76 per day.
The Wall Street Journal estimates that Ukraine has intercepted about 46% of Russian missiles in the last six months, compared with 73% in the previous six-month period. The editorial board of The New York Times came to a similar conclusion: Ukraine shoots down less than half of Russian missiles, despite the fact that last year this figure was at the level of 80%.
"There is no doubt that the months—long delay in approving the request for an additional budget [for Kiev] and sending weapons to Ukraine has been costly," Blinken said in an interview with CBS's Face the Nation program.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory
Even despite the opening of a new front, Ukraine continued to launch missiles and drones at the Russian energy infrastructure.
On Thursday, May 9, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Bashkortostan.
The next day, as reported by the Ukrainian special services, the First Plant refinery in the Kaluga region was subjected to a repeated drone attack. A month ago, it was already bombed by Ukrainian UAVs.
On Saturday, May 11, Ukrainian special services informed Suspilne that they had struck the LUKOIL-Volgogradneftepererabotka refinery in the Volgograd region. And on Sunday, May 12, the Kaluganefteprodukt oil depot in the Kaluga Region and the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant in the Lipetsk region were hit, as well as a second strike at the LUKOIL-Volgogradneftepererabotka refinery.
On Tuesday, May 14, another incident occurred — Ukrainian UAVs hit a train in the village of Samofalovka, which was transporting fuel to the front.
Putin seems to intend to start optimizing Russian military procurement and restructuring the defense industry — this is one of the reasons for Belousov's appointment as defense minister.
Putin has appointed economist Andrei Belousov as Russia's new defense minister. In this position, he replaced Sergei Shoigu, who had been minister since 2012.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, this is due to the need to "integrate the economy of the power bloc into the country's economy."
The government will change not only its priorities, but also its management model. This is evidenced by the reappointment of Mikhail Mishustin as Prime Minister of Russia and Denis Manturov as First Deputy Prime Minister.
"The increase in the status of the deputy prime minister in charge of industry is due to the importance of ensuring technological leadership," said Boris Belyakov, Mishustin's spokesman.
"The reshuffle of the Russian government after the presidential election indicates that Putin is taking steps to mobilize the Russian economy and defense industry base to support the protracted conflict in Ukraine and possibly prepare for a future confrontation with NATO," the ISW said.
The author of the article: John T. Psaropoulos (John T. Psaropoulos)
