Russia Preparing To Open Another Front Amid 'Fragmented' Kharkiv Control

Russia is gearing up for a fresh onslaught on northeastern Ukraine, Kyiv President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned, as his country wrestles with sustained Russian pushes in the Kharkiv region.

Moscow is amassing "another group of troops near our border," approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) northwest of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, the Ukrainian leader said in an address on Sunday.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukraine's Sumy region, like the wider Kharkiv region, sits on the Russian border in the country's northeast, northwest of Kharkiv.

Earlier this month, Russian forces opened up a new front in the war, launching a fresh offensive across the border into Kharkiv. Moscow quickly seized control of several settlements, and Ukrainian officials warned its opponent hoped to divide Kyiv's scarce resources, pulling soldiers and equipment from other parts of the front line.

Ukrainian officials have been warning for weeks that Moscow could also be eyeing up the Sumy region as the target for another offensive. In mid-May, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, said that once Russia stabilized the front line in Kharkiv, it would turn its attention to Sumy.

An attack on the Sumy region "can never be ruled out," Andriy Demchenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty earlier this week. "The enemy can at any moment, even if he does not have sufficient forces, try to do something similar, as is currently happening in the Kharkiv direction," Demchenko said.

The northern front in the Kharkiv region has likely now stabilized, the British Defense Ministry assessed on Sunday, adding that Russia's control over Kharkiv was "fragmented and not joined-up."

"Russia's gains in this axis will be limited in the coming week, as Russia's initial momentum has been contained by Ukrainian resistance," the U.K. government added.

Ukraine's military said on Sunday that Russia launched eight assaults in the Kharkiv region in the past day, but Kyiv's troops had repelled some of the attacks. "Now our warriors have managed to take combat control of the border area, where the Russian occupiers have entered," Zelensky said in his evening address on Friday.

Fighting has raged in and around the Kharkiv border town of Vovchansk, lying just three miles from internationally-recognized Russian territory.

Earlier this week, Ukraine's army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said although Russia had "minor successes" in its initial push, Moscow's troops were now bogged down in "street fighting for Vovchansk."

Russian state media reported on Friday that Kremlin forces had taken control of more than half of Vovchansk.

"The town remains contested, with defending Ukrainian forces repelling the majority of Russian assaults," the British Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Russia has bombarded Kharkiv City with near-constant airstrikes, including targeting a hypermarket in the city on Saturday. At least 15 people have been confirmed dead, Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday.

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