Russian offensive in north-east has begun – Ukraine military

Credit: dpa/NAN

Russia has effectively begun an offensive in Ukraine’s north-eastern regions of Sumy and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s military chief said on Wednesday.

“For almost a week now, we have been observing an almost two-fold increase in the enemy’s attacks on all main sections,’’ Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi told the online portal lb.ua of the fighting in the regions.

He said Russia’s goal remained to establish a buffer zone along the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly stated this objective on multiple occasions.

Syrskyi also confirmed Ukraine’s current mobilisation target of around 30,000 troops per month, a figure President Volodymyr Zelensky previously referenced.

“This is indeed the figure we have to meet,’’ he said.

In spite of sustained losses, Russia was to reinforce its front-line presence by 8,000 to 9,000 soldiers each month, he continued.

Putin previously said Russia had nearly 700,000 troops deployed along the front in 2023.

Ukrainian army numbers, meanwhile, have remained steady at just under 900,000, according to official figures from Kiev.

Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion with Western support for over three years.

Syrskyi, an ethnic Russian, was appointed commander-in-chief in February 2024.

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He is credited with playing a key role in the defence of Kiev in the spring of 2022 and leading a successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region that summer.