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

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
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.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
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.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 

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