Ukraine War Map Reveals Kyiv's Kharkiv Advances

Ukrainian forces are seeing some limited success in their fighting against Russian troops along the shared border in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where in recent weeks Moscow opened a new front that could threaten the nation's second largest city.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its Monday evening update that Kyiv's units "recently made marginal advances north of Kharkiv City in the Lyptsi direction." The U.S.-based think tank added that Russian attacks and progress continue elsewhere on the northeastern front and in the south and east of the country.

The village of Lyptsi is about 7 miles south of the shared border and, according to the ISW's latest battlefield map, is at the southeastern edge of the Russian-held salient now jutting into northeastern Ukraine. Lyptsi is about 12 miles from Kharkiv City's suburbs. The conurbation has long been under regular Russian missile and drone fire, but the approach of the Russian army threatens to put it in the range of regular artillery.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday its forces had repelled a Ukrainian counterattack north of Lyptsi, inflicting heavy losses on Kyiv's troops. Newsweek was unable to verify the reports and has contacted the Defense Ministry by email for comment.

The Ukrainian General Staff, meanwhile, wrote in a Facebook post that troops had prevailed in the fighting near the village. It added that its forces will "implement measures to improve the borders of defense" while achieving further success "in individual areas."

The fiercest recent fighting along the Kharkiv border has been in the town of Vovchansk, now largely destroyed. Ukrainian commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week that Russian forces are "completely bogged down" in the settlement and suffering "very heavy losses."

But the wider picture from all along the front is still one of gradual, if costly, Russian gains. The ISW reported marginal Russian advances in several hot spots all along the contact line, although the breakthrough that followed the seizure of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region appears for now to have been stemmed by Ukrainian reinforcements.

Further west in the Kharkiv region, Russian forces are still edging toward and around the flanks of the city of Kupiansk. Moscow said its forces have captured the settlements of Ivanivka and Berestove in recent days.

Russian forces reportedly advanced further west of Avdiivka and west of the Donetsk city of Bakhmut, where the Kremlin is eyeing the strategic city of Chasiv Yar. Moscow's units also continued their westward creep toward the Donetsk cities of Lyman and Siversk, both of which serve as gateways to the major regional cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

In the direction of southern Zaporizhzhia, Russian forces continued their effort to seize back the limited territory liberated by Ukrainian troops in their failed summer 2023 counteroffensive. Fighting there is centered on the settlement of Staromayorske.

Russia's multipronged offensive effort appears designed to stretch Ukraine and force Kyiv to commit its reserves to battle. President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that Moscow's Kharkiv push represented the beginning of its expected summer offensive and warned the wider operation could "consist of several waves."

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