NATO says Russian troop numbers insufficient for Kharkiv breakthrough

4 months ago 17

NATO’s top commander said on Thursday (16 May) he did not believe Russia’s military has deployed enough troops to make a strategic breakthrough in the region around Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.

General Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, said he was confident Ukrainian forces would hold their lines in the region.

Russia last week opened a new front in the Ukraine war when small groups of highly mobile units pushed swiftly over the border into the Kharkiv region, forcing Ukraine to rush in troops from other areas.

“The Russians don’t have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough,” Cavoli told a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels after a meeting of military chiefs from across the transatlantic alliance.

“More to the point, they don’t have the skill and the capability to do it, to operate at the scale necessary to exploit any breakthrough to strategic advantage,” he added.

“They do have the ability to make local advances and they have done some of that. They’ve also made some local losses.”

He did not give any figures for the number of troops Russia has deployed in the area.

Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s military committee, told the press conference he expected “serious improvements” soon in the amount of ammunition Ukrainian forces would receive.

Russian forces have been outshelling Ukrainian troops sometimes by a ratio of 10 to one, according to officials.

Ukraine’s ammunition shortage was partly down to a months-long delay in getting a major military aid package for Ukraine through the US Congress.

Cavoli said Ukraine’s allies were now shipping “vast amounts” of ammunition and short-range air defence systems and “significant amounts” of armoured vehicles that would help fight the Kharkiv advance.

“I’m in very close contact with our Ukrainian colleagues. And I’m confident that they that they will hold the line,” he said.

Zelenskyy visits to boost morale

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kharkiv on Thursday to boost morale and reinforce troops in the region where Russian forces are trying to press their new offensive beyond border areas.

Moscow has made inroads of at least several kilometres into the north of Kharkiv region since Friday, forcing Kyiv’s outmanned troops to try to hold the line on a new front as Russia mounts more pressure on the front in the east.

“The direction remains extremely difficult – we are strengthening our units,” Zelenskyy said after holding a meeting in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with his top commander and senior military leaders.

Later, in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that thanks to the actions of Ukrainian forces “we have achieved more certainty” near Vovchansk, 5 km inside the border.

“But the Russian shelling is not stopping, threats persist.” he said.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov, speaking on national television, said Russian forces were still bent on capturing the town.

“While we cannot say that our soldiers have yet stabilised the front line, they have already stopped the active advance of the enemy in Kharkiv region,” he said. In some places, he said, Ukrainian troops had regained earlier positions.

The Ukrainian leader, who has cancelled his upcoming foreign trips as the battlefield situation deteriorates, met wounded soldiers recovering at a medical facility and posed for photographs with troops at another location.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Black Bird Group, told Reuters that Moscow’s Kharkiv push looked aimed at drawing in Kyiv’s limited reserves into battle before an offensive begins.

“If Ukraine overcommits in Kharkiv and Sumy, they may preserve some territory there, perhaps prevent Kharkiv civilians from suffering artillery bombardments, perhaps even push back the enemy back to the border,” he said.

“But it may cost them the war, if the reserves are not available to respond to crises during the Russian summer offensive.”

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)