Ukrainian media reported on Monday that the Ukrainian general responsible for the northeastern Kharkiv oblast was fired on May 11, one day after Russian forces launched a new offensive in the region that has had significant success.
Gen. Yuriy Halushkin was replaced by Gen. Mykhaylo Drapatiy, and the news came as Ukrainian troops were speaking out about the lack of defenses in Kharkiv.
“There was no first line of defense. We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined field,” said Denys Yaroslavskyi, a commander of a Ukrainian Special Reconnaissance Unit.
“Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn’t a failure. It was a betrayal,” he said. In a Facebook post, Yaroslavskyi said he was speaking out because “we could die and no one will hear the truth.”
According to BBC, everybody knew that Russia was likely planning an incursion in the region as Ukrainian and Western intelligence showed that Russia was building a force on the other side of the border, with estimates that 30,000 troops were amassed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces captured nine villages in Kharkiv since Friday. On Monday, Russia said its troops entered Vovchansk, the largest village in the area, which is only about three miles from the Russian border.
Ukrainian officials believe the purpose of the Russian offensive is to stretch Ukraine’s defensive lines, which were already at risk of collapsing. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told The New York Times that the Ukrainian military was facing a “critical” situation.
“All of our forces are either here or in Chasiv Yar,” Budanov said, referring to a city in Donetsk. “I’ve used everything we have. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else in the reserves.”
Russia’s offensive has come with a heavy bombardment, and nearly 6,000 civilians have fled the area, according to Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov. He said on Monday that Russian strikes had hit more than 30 towns and villages in the past day, wounding nine people.
Ukraine has kept up its shelling of the neighboring Belgorod oblast in Russia, where Ukrainian strikes killed 11 civilians on Sunday.
As the slushy roads dry up, expect to hear more advancement from Russians towards Kharkiv.
And more Russian equipment and personnel destroyed. Incremental gains with hundreds of dead Russians is a fantastic strategy!
It’s still a superior strategy to falling back Ukrainians.
An a**hole like you would think that.
Don’t hate the player little boy. Hate the game.
Methinks the Russians needed to do something proactive about the constant cowardly bombardment of Russian civilians who in fact have done nothing to Ukrainians, apart from committing the sin of living within range of said cowards, the chief among whom is a pathetic, comedic piano player and con-artist.
Russia was never going to allow those bombardment to go on forever. At this stage Russia wants to avoid carpet bombing of their capital to avoid civilian death, but it appears these attacks are provocations for such a response to accuse crimes against humanity.
“Vovchansk, the largest village in the area” – maybe in US, an administrative center with over 20K population is considered as an village but in Russia it got status of town a long time ago, in 18th century, before USA were created.
“6000 civilians have fled the area” – sure, this event is more newsworthy than three Ukrainian brigades destroyed in this area in a couple of days.
Show me the source of “three Ukrainian brigades destroyed…” I’ll wait.
(BTW, if the source is TASS, make sure you include the article where they say Russia destroyed 16,000 Ukrainian armored vehicles. Hahaha.)
Moron. The Ukrainians are being totally wiped out. It is a literal rout.
So much for the so-called great NATO.
Incredible how brainwashed these deniers are and can’t accept reality.
NATO has always bern the aggressor and is getting what it deserves unmitigated defeat and humiliation.
The world would be a happier place without the western plutocratic empire.
You russo-philes keep pumping your junk.
As a Libertarian I love and trust no government which enables me to see outside the Overton window that you can’t.
I sort of feel sorry sometimes for the pathetic sheep being led to slaughter but sometimes I am disgusted. Like now LOL.
Good luck in your delusions.
liberatarians are an affront for trump loving gun shooting southerners
admit it you love trump and hate biden and you think we are being invaded by an army of immigrants and you ALSO probably believe in the great replacement theory
You this and you that… You should speak for yourself. Speaking for others is just projection.
Libertarian is usually just an embarrased former GOPer!
Question. What will it take for you to concede that Ukrainian military is withdrawing accross the entire front and Russian military gaining?
I believe Ukrainians themselves said this much on several occassions in the last few days.
If something changes and something positive happens — I am sure Ukrainians would be most happy to tell us.
When that actually happens. You watch daily updates and think that’s how the entire war is going. In war, there’s always a give-and-take. Wait to see the bigger, strategic picture.
pretty sure NATO never invaded Ukraine, but I don’t have sources, so take me with a grain of salt
They’ll deny the obvious until they can’t; at which point they’ll either claim they agreed all along but were “just being optimistic” OR they’ll shift the goalposts and claim it WASN’T about defending Ukraine, it was “about buying Poland, Finland, Andorra time to raise a defensive force against the Red Army.”
In either case, rational i mean reality deniers are either lying now, or they’re lying later.
Sure they are. Provide your evidence. I’m still waiting.
Why act as if you’ll achieve something if Ukraine or Russia dies?
Lives are forever departed from this earth into judgement, those men and women won’t worry about you.. but their own life and what they did with it. I suggest people start doing the same.
Iraq to Libya to Taiwan to Ukraine would certainly be a better place if people worried about themselves
Thanks for whatever you were trying to say. You were very persuasive.
It all reminds me of the cheerleading done when. America invaded Iraq or when 9-11 happen.. what do you gain?. Those soldiers that are dying and civilians wouldn’t be invited to the leader’s house not go on vacation with him/her.
Just regular people like Iraqi police, Ukrainian police, Russian police NYC firefighters who are being killed.
Entire families will fill heartbreak for the rest of their lives until they join them.
It’s an antiwar site, but camps are being formed with pro-isis, pro Israel, pro Hamas, pro Russian, pro Ukraine..etc..
it’s really an oxymoron at this point, you either want to see someone’s skull crushed or you don’t.
I don’t see any difference joining “the resistance/or invading”. You’re still picking up a gun, tank, bomb going to hurt your fellow man.. I’d rather die then follow the same footsteps
Well, when one country invades another and “antiwar” people are on this site cheering for the invader, I’m going to voice my opinion. I am antiwar but defending your home and family from an invader is a pretty human thing to do.
same i am antiwar but am ashamed to see other anti war people cheering for a genocidal maniac
They aren’t antiwar at all. They fit the historical definition of “tankie”. It’s a wierd affliction. They’re convinced the invaded caused the invader to attack. They’ll make every excuse for the invasion. I personally think it’s a mental illness.
YES that actually makes sense! They are war-mongers in disguise
100%!
Then you’re pro war.. there’s no wiggle room. No one lives forever.
No. I’m not.
Ukrainians are not being routed Mr. Infowars
Back up what you wrote. How about the source of your assertion?
BET
-Kyiv is still Ukrainian
-Kharkiv is still Ukrainian
-The russian advance around Chasiv Jar is PATHETIC
-Despite a breakthrough in April, the Russian advance along the Ocheretyne salient has been stifled
-Russian forces appear to be slowing down offensive actions near Vovans’k due to losses and a lack of desire to push further
-Ukraine will get more aid this summer allowing them to hold the front lines or maybe push in some areas
-The russian economy will likely face issues next year as they are spending too much on the military
Other people in other places have been replaced, too.
In the last week, Putin has sacked Shoigu as defense minister and had two of his top generals arrested on corruption charges.
i know
and don’t forget the uhm…………
103 airplanes
474,444 tanks
1.1M soldiers
25 western leaders
anyone who thinks russia would be able to walk into kharkiv unapposed is disallusioned with reality
30,000 troops are too few to take Kharkiv.
Not if it’s a siege of an empty town
yeah
the ISW estimates to fully encircle the city (and capture it) they need 300k men
The ISW is run by Victoria Nuland
You do know that don’t you ?
DRINK!
Yet another moronic take from the ‘Rational’ (lol) thinker.
Keep embarrassing yourself. It is amusing.
And you are so accurate with your “information”. Keep going. You look like the fool.
no but that doesn’t matter
Kharkov is an old Russian city, as is Kiev and Odessa. All will be taken by the Russians – likely by siege. In the meantime what’s left of the Uke army will be wiped out.
BTW how nice it was of the vile Zelensky and his fellow scum to steal the $$$ that were supposed to fund fortified defences for the lads on the front lines.
Anyway, any Ukrainians who wish to live should get the hell out now. Go travel from those places towards the ancestral Ukrainian homeland of Lviv.
Feel free to do so. Enjoy living in a poor, landlocked rump ‘State’ run by organised crime gangs. But at least it will feel like home, after all you can worship your heroes there, evil pigs like Bandera and the SS Galicien Division.
Here is a report about how the money intended for the Kharkov fortifications was diverted to shell compainies. I cannot vouch for the reliability of either “Pravda Ukraine” or the “Mezha Anti Corruption Center,” but, if true, it is pretty damning.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2024/05/13/7455571/index.amp
Hence my ongoing claims of the upcoming “European Union Welfare State of Aryan West Ukraine”.
Seems like that’d be hard to do with no armored vehicles left!
https://www.newsweek.com/video-shows-ukraine-blow-then-russian-vehicles-single-strike-1899992
kharkIv and KYIV are mostly Ukrainian, They were Russian but not anymore
New York was Dutch. SHould it be returned to Amsterdam?
Mexico City was Spanish? SHould it be returned to Madrid?
Whatever you do, do not Google a map of the Mongol Empire!
hah
Russia doesn’t need to ‘walk into Kharkov’, dummy
Which they can’t do anyway. Keep moving the goalposts, Putin-puffer!
l0l
how
Pepe Escobar
@RealPepeEscobar
·
4h
Yoda Patrushev is now a special adviser to The Big Guy.
Translation: in touch 24/7 on every crucial dossier.
“…Russian strikes had hit more than 30 towns and villages in the past day, wounding nine people.”
Wow, what slouches If the IDF had bombed 30 towns & villages at least 1,500 if not 3,000 would dead.
SNAFU is just another word for the organizational face of the Ukrainian untelligentsia. Crooks also suffice.