Russia's Kharkiv Push Aims To Stretch Ukraine Forces: Analysts

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th May, 2024) Russia's offensive around Ukraine's Kharkiv likely aims more at presenting Kyiv with a strategic quandary over where to deploy its already stretched forces than taking the major city, experts say.

Moscow's troops were by Monday firing on around 30 villages in the northeast region and had occupied tens of square kilometres (miles) in the space of a few days.

But analysts don't see Russia's immediate aim as taking Ukraine's second-largest city, with a pre-war population of 1.4 million, after Moscow already failed to capture the industrial hub in its initial invasion from February 2022.

"This Russian force is of insufficient size to seize a city the size of Kharkiv," Australian former general Mick Ryan wrote on blogging platform Substack.

"It could however hold it at risk with increased artillery strikes," he added, saying the coming weeks "may be one of the toughest moments for Ukraine in the war so far".

Over the two years of its invasion, Russia has been running complementary campaigns of attrition of men and materiel on the battlefield and public opinion among Kyiv's allies.

It still holds a numerical advantage, bolstered by the months of dallying in Washington over the $61-billion aid package finally passed in April.

The Ukrainians "were forced to ration their shells and war materiel for months, leading to higher attrition rates," said Ivan Klyszcz of the Estonia-based International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS).