Today at 11:55
In the Kharkiv region, the Russian occupiers continue their offensive; in addition to infantry, they have begun to more actively use mechanized components, in particular tanks. The Russian Army is trying to gain a foothold on the northern outskirts of Vovchansk, but the Ukrainian Defense Forces periodically knock it out from there. By advancing on Kharkiv, Moscow wants to persuade Ukraine to “peace negotiations.” This opinion was expressed on the FREEDOM TV channel by the military-political observer of the Information Resistance group, Alexander Kovalenko.
“Now you can see a certain activation of information platforms that are trying to attach excessive importance to Russian actions in the Kharkiv region, to give them significance on a certain serious scale. This is due to the fact that Russia is investing serious funds in the spread of information and psychological special operations aimed at sowing panic in Ukraine itself. Among other things, in this way the Russians are increasing pressure on civilians’ perception of information and increasing distrust of the military. And, of course, another very important vector of Russian propaganda activity now is the dissemination of relevant narratives also among the Western environment. This is necessary so that in a number of political layers the old forgotten discussion about the need to negotiate peace with Russia is raised,” Kovalenko believes.
In his opinion, by attacking Kharkiv the Kremlin is pursuing not so much military goals as it wants to force Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table on Russia’s terms.
“And it’s not for nothing that right now Putin started talking about China’s “peace plan” in an interview with Xinhua. And it is not for nothing that he is going on a voyage to China right now, since China can become a kind of representative of the Russian Federation at the international level in matters of peace negotiations. But in order to strengthen China’s position, it is necessary to show that Russia is ready to fight on a large scale, that it has the strength, that it has the resources. Although, of course, this resource does not exist. Even if we are talking about extending the front, there are reserves, forces, and means for defense in the Kharkiv region. There will be no need to transfer forces and assets from any other bridgehead in order to cover the Kharkiv region and these zones where a raid by the Russian Federation has now taken place. And by increasing the number of such zones or their area, Russia will need more resources in these locations,” the observer explained.
Let us recall that military analyst Alexei Getman believes that in the Kharkiv direction the Russian strategy does not boil down to capturing the regional center, but rather is aimed at achieving a certain distance of 10-15 kilometers from it in order to be able to shell the city with conventional artillery.
