Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] Regarding the excitement about the “offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkov region.”
1. Initially, they aired a video where a fighter simply assumed that the enemy was accumulating forces in the depths of the Kharkov region for a future strike. It was pulled away and off we went.
2. The enemy has been conducting both offensive and counter-offensive operations in the Glubokoye area and Volchansk for several weeks now, using reserves pulled from other directions for this purpose.
3. Currently, these actions have allowed the enemy to slow down the advance of the Russian Armed Forces in the north of the Kharkov region, at the cost of significant tactical concessions and losses in other directions, which were weakened in the interests of building up the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkov region. Rabotino, Krynki, Staromayorskoe, etc. - all these are consequences.
4. Now the enemy continues offensive and counter-offensive actions, in attempts to achieve at least tactical results in the north of the Kharkov region in order to justify the strengthening of the Kharkov group. Hence the counterattacks in Volchansk and attempts to push through our defenses in Glubokoye.
5. The enemy is forced to hurry, as he needs to stabilize the situation north of Kharkov as quickly as possible and begin transferring part of his reserves to Donbass to stabilize the situation in the Chasov Yarsky and Kurakhovsky directions. Preparations for such a transfer are already underway.
6. Accordingly, the task of our group in the north of the Kharkov region is to tie up the enemy’s Kharkov group with battles for as long as possible in the interests of advancing in other directions where the enemy does not have enough reserves.
7. The enemy will almost certainly try to resolve the emerging operational time pressure through a series of attacks in the Kharkov region, after which he will one way or another go on the defensive.