Ukrainian troops advancing in the northern Kharkiv sector reach the Russian border in another Kremlin setback, according to Monday, May 16, news and official reports.
Video published by the 227th battalion of the 127th Territorial Defense Regiment showed jubilant Ukrainian infantry armed with rifles and anti-tank rockets erecting a new border market on the international frontier and declaring the Ukrainian side cleared of the enemy and fully under army control. There was no sign of Russian Federation (RF) troops or resistance in the images made public on May 15.
Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF)-associated social media reported the detachment reached the border in the vicinity of the village Zelene, to Kharkiv’s north-west.
A May 16 situation report made public by Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) said that Kyiv’s offensive in the Kharkiv sector was proceeding as planned and that RF troops in the vicinity appeared to be retreating and looking to organize prepared defenses further east.
A May 16 morning statement from the pro-Kremlin Readovka Telegram information platform said that UAF units were pushing in the Kharkiv region with the goal of reaching the Russian border and clearing RF ground forces from territory near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The report did not mention the presence of UAF forces on the border itself.
RF forces attempted to capture Kharkiv and held it under siege for nearly two months. At least 400 civilians are thought to have died in the attacks, and hundreds of apartment buildings and private homes were demolished in daily RF bombardment. The UAF launched a local counter-offensive in the vicinity on May 8 with the short-term objective of ending continuing RF shelling and bombing bombardment of Kharkiv homes and businesses, and the longer-term objective of returning UAF control to all of the Kharkiv region.
UAF units executing the thus-far successful Kharkiv region advance have been a grab-bag mix of military formations including locally-organized Territorial Defense platoons, National Guard units, and civilian volunteers frequently armed with their own weapons and operating in minibusses and pickup trucks.
Elsewhere along the line of contact, in the eastern Severodonetsk sector RF regular army units renewed attempts to break into the city. RF state-controlled news platforms said the attacks made some progress while Ukrainian official statements and independent news reports said the assaults were stopped with losses.
Both RF and Ukrainian sources noted the demolition by UAF engineers of a double-track railroad bridge in the town Rubizhne, on the northern approaches to Severodonetsk.
In the Izium sector, the scene of a serious local RF defeat last week when Kremlin units attempted repeatedly to force a crossing of the Siviersky Donets River only to be devastated by drone-controlled UAF artillery, RF forces over the weekend conducted limited attacks, frequently with artillery or air force support. Their goal was to establish defensive positions on the river’s left bank, the AGS statement said.
Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk regional defense command, in a May 16 statement said RF units in the vicinity were still shelling and bombing civilian homes and businesses, and that the frequency and volume of fighting have made the evacuation of civilians on the front line villages impossible for the time being. He confirmed that the RF had apparently abandoned attempts to cross the river in an attempt to capture the towns Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
A Donetsk regional defense command statement said RF units attempted to advance towards the town Avdievka, held by the UAF since the first day of the conflict but was unable to advance against deeply dug-in UAF defenses. A statement from the Zaporizhzhia regional defense command said that artillery fire was exchanged around the Zaporizhzhia region village Hulyaipole, but no major troop movements took place.
