Ukraine sends reinforcements to Kharkiv after Russian offensive | DW News

Ukraine says it’s sending reinforcements to strengthen its positions near harv that’s after a surprised Russian ground offensive prompted Mass evacuations there Russia said Saturday it had captured five villages in the region hundreds of civilians are thought to have fled from the nearby town of ofans which is reportedly under Russian fire Russian shelling has set homes Ablaze in the town of ofans the resident here are picked one by one by the rescue teams some on unsteady legs for them the war has come too close once again wans was occupied by Russian troops after the full-scale invasion in February 2022 it was liberated that September and has been sporadically sheld since then these days and nights something ter able is going on may God protect us you lie down and think whether they will kill you now or in an hour or three many are leaving not knowing when and if they will return to their homes smoke and bombing are the last memories they’re taking with them we drove through for shans in the Town Center I can’t look at this without without tears everything is shaking we didn’t sleep these two nights at all Russian forces have been slowly but steadily pressuring the Ukrainian defenses Ukraine says it’s fighting back but its military strength is depleted supplies from a long delayed American Aid package are only beginning to trickle to the front lines as Ukraine waits for more ammunition and aid from its allies president zalinsky has responded to the threat posed by Russia’s new offensive he’s called for a Steely resolve from his armed forces and is deploying reinforcements to the emerging new front our forces must achieve maximum results to destroy our enemy everywhere today there were reports from our commanderin-chief Alexander syi we are strengthening our positions especially in the KH region by deploying additional forces the artillery is operating exactly as planned let’s bring in Marina Miron from the war studies department at King’s College London welcome Marina so um we’re hearing that Ukrainian president zalinski announcing he’s sending reinforcements to Harve what does that tell us about what’s happening on the ground there good morning marann so from the reports what we’re seeing right now is that the Russians are trying to create a so-called Castle around wans however we have to bear in mind that uh we still cannot talk about a large scale offensive in har because at the moment the Russians are using minimum force meaning about ground force it is five battalions so about 5,000 people so it is not clear what is going to happen however it did trigger um perhaps the response that the Russians were hoping for namely the fact that the Ukrainian command has sent reinforcements and the choice for the Ukrainian command is difficult because they have to get people from other directions and send them to harkee possibly neglecting other important locations yes and in addition to sending reinforcements as we saw in that report thousands of people have been evacuated from the kiv area so is Ukraine treating this as a new front in the war yes potentially Ukraine is treating it as a new front and there are fears that the Russians might also try an incursion in the Sumi oist however we don’t know what is going to happen because um we also have other directions we still have chivar we have zapia we also have to remember that the Russians had a breakthrough in ofka which was an important line of defense for the Ukrainian armed forces and with a fall Fortin it could be possible that the Russians will be trying to develop their offensive in the direction of um kurov and P so that is also an important logistical Point meaning that if Ukraine sends all the reinforcements to hariv and possibly sui in order to stop the Russians and their tracks there these um important directions will be lost and the idea for the Russian forces would be then to to cut the front in two and to cut the logistics and Communications for the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the groupings well KV has long been asking for additional support and now we have this delayed American Aid package only now starting to reach the front lines so is this going to help Ukraine gain ground or is it going to be a case of too little too late well the first question we have to ask ourselves is is the kind of aid that Ukraine has been receiving from the United States is that what they actually need to defend against the Russian offensive so they have received already atams but the atams in themselves do not enable the Ukrainian forces to properly defend and what they need are armored vehicles they need artillery systems they need artillery ammunition and air defenses and all those are missing again we have heard reports that there is some delays was artillery ammunitions coming from the Czech Republic and these would be in Ukraine by June so the Ukraine is getting bits and bits of this Aid it doesn’t know which directions to priorize so the problem here is the kind of Aid that is coming and where to send it as well as the ongoing problem with the Ukrainian Armed Forces was a shortage of Manpower and I’m afraid all these factors combined contribute to this very unpleasant situation for the Ukrainian armed forces in terms of their defensive capabilities right now that was Marina [ __ ] from the war studies department at kings’s College London Marina thank you for your insights thank you for having me

Ukraine says it’s sending reinforcements to strengthen its positions near Kharkiv after a surprise Russian ground offensive prompted mass evacuations there. Russia said on Saturday it had captured five villages in the region. Hundreds of civilians are thought to have fled from the nearby town of Vovchansk, which is reportedly under Russian fire.

00:00 Intro and report
02:34 DW speaks with Marina Miron of the War Studies Department at King’s College London

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1

For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
Follow DW on social media:
►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews
►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews
►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout
Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch

#Ukraine #Russia #UkraineWar

31 comments

  3. Kings war college needs to focus on how tiny poor countries can defend itself from invading big countries with lots of weapons and soldiers? Theories are not enough.

  6. When Ukraine losing they don’t take their failure responsibility seriously but they keep blaming USA 🇺🇸. We don’t need waste our taxpayers money there for no reason

  8. Zelensky is a capital JOKE how can you win a war with Russia they have the experience of WWII and the resources i feel sorry for the poor Innocent people of Ukrain

  9. If the russian amry was fighting like their online clowns claim the war´d be over. Since in this dimension it isn´t their chatter is just obnoxious noise.

  10. Это русские люди, это русская земля. В составе России или Украине – мне вообще пофиг. Но если Украина имеет что-то против русских (не Россиян, а именно русских), то такая Украина миру не нужна.

  11. Russia captured 5 villages in 2.5 years of fighting. Now they're trying blitz through the country again so they can run out of supplies again and lose it all… Brilliant 😂😂

  13. UA should blame its corruption and stealing (up to 30%) of foreign aid for the recent setbacks. After the decision of $60b US help to Ukraine, the producers of luxury cars in Europe became euphoric.

  20. Is his the offensive Ukraine has been promising us since the beginning of 2023? If so, do they know they are moving in the wrong direction?

  24. Western democratic countries stay with Ukraine and that will not stop.
    Those countries, which do not stay with Ukraine should get some kind of special treatment by western countries since they enrich themselves of the back of this conflict.

  26. Elensky needs to wave the white flag already 🙄 unpleasant situation? The elensky regime are getting their butts kicked😮

  31. I sympathize with all victims of this war but I also wish DW would cover the Palestinians cry just as much. Just a bunch of western hypocrisy and struggling hegemonic powers

Leave a Reply