As of: March 28, 2024, 5:02 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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In the Ukraine war, there are rumors that Vladimir Putin wants to attack the city of Kharkiv with the Russian army. Kyiv is now commenting on this.
Kharkiv – Was it an indication that there is much more to come right here in the Ukraine war? “Russian forces are conducting a coherent multi-axis offensive operation in the Kharkiv-Luhansk sector for the first time in over a year and a half of their deployment in Ukraine,” the
Institute for the Study of War (ISW)
wrote in an analysis at the end of February.
Russian offensive on Kharkiv? Ukraine denies alleged Putin plan
Because Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion troops are testing out a large-scale offensive toward the battered country's second-largest city, namely Kharkiv?
ZDF
's "heute journal"
reported on Wednesday (March 27) about "reports that Putin will try to take over the city of millions at all costs." Nearby Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region has long been a focus of fighting between the two armies.
At the beginning of the year, the widely quoted US think tank
ISW
wrote that a major offensive on Kharkiv could not be ruled out in the coming months given the intensity of the fighting near Kupyansk. However, as
The Kyiv Independent
reported on Thursday (March 28), Kiev rejected reports of alleged Russian preparations for an offensive in Kharkiv Oblast.
Sacrificed a lot of soldiers in Ukraine: Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin (right) in front of Russian helicopter pilots. © IMAGO/Sergei Karpukhin
Ukraine war: Russia increases bombing of Kharkiv, a city with over a million inhabitants
Striking: Since January, Moscow's armed forces have significantly increased their bombing of the city with its around 1.5 million inhabitants after they were unable to take Kharkiv at the beginning of the attack on its western neighbor, which violated international law. At the end of March, Russian fighter jets dropped unguided free-fall bombs on the city - without attacking precise military targets.
Moscow currently “does not have the resources” for such an operation, the Ukrainian “Center for Combating Disinformation” said in response to the rumors surrounding an alleged Kharkiv offensive. The opposition Russian news portal
Meduza
recently speculated about such a scenario. The large city is located on the river of the same name, only around 40 kilometers from the border with the Russian Federation.
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Kharkiv in Ukraine: Great importance for Vladimir Putin's regime
“All their lies about the readiness to surround the city are aimed at internal and external audiences and are part of the 'fear propaganda' campaign,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the “Center to Combat Disinformation”: “Discussions over 350,000 soldiers that they want to recruit for this task, threats from (
Russian propagandist, editor
) Vladimir Solovyov - so far only rumors. This is a psychological operation.” Instead, the enemy is “only able to shell and terrorize the city, and under this terror he adapts narratives about an offensive that is impossible.”
Kharkiv has great symbolic significance for the Russian Kremlin. The Ukrainian defenders inflicted a devastating defeat on Putin's army here in the so-called "Battle of Kharkiv" between February and April 2022. As
The Washington Post
and
Forbes
later reported, the Russian 20th Guards Army failed to take the city, although it reportedly attacked with 560 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles and around 300 T-72 main battle tanks.
Volodymyr Zelenskyj honored the city of millions as the “Hero City of Ukraine”.
On February 27, 2022, Russian soldiers were instead driven out of the suburbs by territorial defense forces after fierce street fighting. From May onwards, Kharkiv was one of the starting points for the successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2022, in which the 20th Guards Army was pushed back behind the Russian border. Because of its resilience, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj later honored the city with over a million inhabitants as the “Hero City of Ukraine”.
(pm)