The occupiers’ operation in the Kharkiv direction began to slow down - Mashovets

The occupiers’ operation in the Kharkiv direction began to slow down - Mashovets

“Obviously, the Russian operation in the Kharkiv operational direction has begun to “slow down” - the pace is falling, losses, on the contrary, are growing (the enemy’s advance on 13.05, in contrast to the previous day, is clearly noticeably less). Well, it’s not surprising - if the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to actively “react” (including with their own additional forces and means, which, it seems to me, the enemy actually wanted), then sooner or later he has to stop, even if temporarily. Even in order to simply bring in “fresh” forces and resources to “continue the banquet,” Mashovets commented .

"Although, I must admit, from a "technical" (tactical) point of view, the implementation (execution) of this enemy’s plan has become quite effective (at present, obviously, not completely). But this rather refers to the effective part of the decisions (or rather, the delay in their adoption) of the former leadership of our military training facility "Kharkiv", - said the military observer.

He suggests that in the near future, the Russians may sharply intensify their actions on the Kupyansk direction, as an offensive on Vovchansk could create difficulties for the Defence Forces near Kupyansk. However, it is not certain that the Russians will succeed in "creating difficulties" for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"As for me, at the moment, the command of the ’Sever’ military unit, and in particular its ’Belgorod’ tactical group, simply do not have enough forces and means to make this kind of ’breakthrough’... There is no process of rapid deployment of appropriate forces and means capable of such ’feats’ in their rear. It must be clearly understood that ousting the Ukrainian Armed Forces from several border villages in a 10km strip is one thing, but a breakthrough of 50-52km into the depths of the enemy’s operational structure, which is ready and fully expecting such actions, is quite another," Mashovets explained.

At the moment, according to Mashovets, north of Kharkiv, the Russians are trying to break through to Lyptsi, attacking in two directions: Strilecha - Hlyboke and along the Lypets River, from the village of Lukyantsi.

Illustration: DeepState map

“At the time of writing the review, I had no information that the enemy had occupied the entire village. Deep (although in all likelihood it could be). According to the Lukyantsy-Liptsy directorate, it is obvious that the enemy’s advanced units are fighting in the area of the village itself. Lukyantsi (most likely occupied by the enemy) and is unlikely to have a significant advance towards the village. Lyptsi,” noted the observer.

In the Vovchansk sector, advanced units of the Russian army are both acting towards Vovchansk - from the village of Pletenivka - and trying to bypass it from the west, operating along the Siverskyi Donets River in the directions of Ohirtseve - Bugrivatka and Hatyshche - Synelnykove. According to Mashovets, the enemy’s clear goal is to cut the Starytsia-Vovchansk road near the village of Prylipka.

Illustration: DeepState map

"As for Vovchansk itself, the information about the events in the city is rather contradictory. There are reports that the enemy managed to enter the city (in the area of the meat processing plant), and there is the opposite information - that they were pushed back into the forest, towards the village of Hatyshche. I think the situation will become more or less clear by 14 May, and the prospects for further defence of Vovchansk will be determined more clearly," commented Mashovets.

He believes that in the near future the command of the Russian military unit Belhorod will try to increase its efforts in the Vovchansk direction.

"It is clearly not worthwhile to judge the real plans and intentions of the enemy command only by the first four days of the activation of its troops (yes, I was not mistaken, the enemy’s first attempts to "wedge in across the border" in this direction began on 10 May), in general, in relation to the entire Kharkiv operational direction, in any operational or even strategic sense. There are several reasons for this: the events are unfolding in the 10-kilometre border zone; the enemy has apparently deployed such a volume of forces and means that, at this time, simply does not "pull", even at the operational level. At present, due to the lack of certain information, it is impossible to give a sufficiently complete assessment of the level and degree of coherence and "linking" of these enemy actions with its own "body movements" in other operational areas," the military observer concluded.