Russia could be preparing major offensive in coming weeks - Reuters

Aggressor state russia may be preparing for a major offensive in the coming weeks. At the same time, the accumulation of small units of the invaders near the Sumy Region became noticeable.

It was reported by Reuters on Thursday, May 16.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Black Bird Group, told Reuters that moscow's offensive on Kharkiv looked aimed at drawing in Kyiv's limited reserves into battle before the main summer offensive begins. If Ukraine manages to keep the territory of the Kharkiv Region and the Sumy Region, this will prevent the russians from the artillery shelling of civilians and, perhaps, push the enemy to the border.

“After reporting fighting in Vovchansk, some 45 km from the city of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian General Staff said its troops had launched a counterattack to hit back at the invaders. Kyiv, whose shortages of manpower have been compounded by delays to Western arms supplies, has warned that Russia may be preparing for a big offensive in the coming weeks. It has flagged a Russian buildup of small units near its Sumy region,” the material says.

Russia claims it has occupied 12 villages since the attack began. Analysts believe that without the response of Ukrainian reserves during the summer offensive, this "may cost them the war," writes Reuters.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on May 14, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that the Ukrainian military was forced to leave a number of positions in the area of Vovchansk.

On May 15, the Defense Forces stopped attempts by russian troops to break through the defense in the Kharkiv direction.

On May 16, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff in Kharkiv on the situation at the front.