May 13, 2024

Russia Goes After Kharkiv, Again


Russia Goes After Kharkiv, Again
Russian soldier pointing a rifle in front of a military vehicle. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Wikimedia Commons.

On May 10, Russia attempted to break Ukraine's northeastern line of defense in Kharkiv Oblast. Ukrainian forces evacuated 1,775 civilians in villages neighboring the Russo-Ukrainian border.

Kharkiv Oblast was one of the first territories affected by the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022. Russian forces occupied a significant portion of the region, but could not capture the capital. By September 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had retaken most of the oblast's territory.

After Russia's recent elections, there was speculation that Russia was preparing a new wave of mass mobilizations to encircle the city of Kharkiv after the presidential elections were over. On May 10, the second-largest city in Ukraine woke up to a barrage of artillery and rockets.

On May 11, The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Telegram that a Russian unit had "liberated" five villages. Per the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration head, Oleh Syniehubov, the northeast of Ukraine is "fully controlled" [by Ukraine]. Yet Syniehubov admitted there is heavy fighting in the captured towns. He also said the Russian army attempted to advance in other directions in this region, but Ukrainian defenses stopped them. "There is no threat of a ground invasion of Kharkiv," Syniehubov said.

According to the BBC, Russia does not have enough forces to advance deep into Kharkiv, but it is also unclear how many men it is willing to use in this maneuver. The Ukrainian Armed Forces declared the area by the border with Russia's Belgorod Oblast a gray zone, which means Ukraine is on the defensive.

Two 48- and 50-year-old civilians were killed by guided missiles during Russia's attack on Kharkiv. Most of the evacuees were elderly. Sixty-one-year-old Lyubov Nikolaieva and her octogenarian mother were among those who left. The sounds of bombs and mortar shells became terrifying. Nikolaieva said, "It became impossible to live there ... [we] stayed there until the last moment."

 

You Might Also Like

Returning Home to Kill
  • April 29, 2024

Returning Home to Kill

More than 100 persons have been killed by returning Russian soldiers since the beginning of Russia's War on Ukraine.
A Brick in AWOL
  • April 16, 2024

A Brick in AWOL

In March 2024, Russian military courts began handing down about 34 sentences a day for unauthorized abandonment of military service.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955