General Oleksandr Sîrskî, commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, said in an interview with Ukrinform on Friday that any attempt by the Russian army to capture the city of Kharkiv would be “fatal” for Moscow’s forces, notes The Kyiv Independent.
Colonel-General Oleksandr SirskiiPhoto: Roman Chop / AP / Profimedia
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, located just over 30 kilometers south of the Russian border, has recently been the target of Russian rocket, drone and aerial bombardment.
Russia’s “political elites” have not ruled out President Vladimir Putin ordering a ground offensive to capture the city, according to Meduza.
A source close to the Kremlin believes that among Putin’s “more realistic goals” is the capture of Kharkiv and then the gradual end of the “special military operation”.
Putin has publicly stated that a “buffer zone” needs to be created around Belgorod to stop attacks on the region, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Sources from among the “Russian elites” told Meduza that high-ranking military officials are confident of their ability to capture Kharkiv, but believe it could be “difficult” to advance further into Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainians are building lines of fortifications
In an interview with Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, Sîrskî said that such an attack cannot be ruled out and that the Ukrainian armed forces “are taking all measures to adequately respond to such a possibility”.
“Today, we are doing large-scale work on the fortification of territories and positions, we are installing a complex system of barriers,” the Ukrainian general said.
Some of Ukraine’s greatest victories in the full-scale invasion of Russia were overseen by Sîrski.
He is the one who commanded the lightning offensive in the Kharkiv region that led to the catastrophic collapse of the Russian front in northeastern Ukraine in September 2022, after being the commander of the defense forces of Kiev at the beginning of the war.
The Snow Leopard’s Warning
Referring to the liberation of parts of the Kharkiv region in 2022 after seven months of Russian occupation, Syrsky said the Ukrainian armed forces already had experience in military operations in the region, which had caused “a large-scale collapse of the Russian front”.
“If the Russians go there again, Kharkiv will become a fatal city for them,” he added.
The general also said that despite Kiev’s troops being outnumbered and outgunned, Ukraine’s use of drones and high-precision artillery means Russian troops “can never feel safe” even far from the front line. the front.
The commander of the Ukrainian armed forces also acknowledged that the situation on the frontline remains “very difficult”, stating that Moscow’s forces continue to attack in mass and that it has recently significantly increased the use of airstrikes and guided bombs that ” destroy Ukrainian positions”.
The Russians, in advantage
Sîrskî also said that Russian forces currently enjoy an ammunition advantage of about 6 to 1, adding that Ukraine is aided by high-precision munitions.
“Our gunners use high-precision ammunition to destroy enemy concentrations even tens of kilometers from the front line,” he added.
Sîrskî became the head of Ukraine’s ground forces in 2019. He previously commanded Ukrainian troops fighting pro-Russian troops in eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which fighting began in 2014, and the general was given the nickname “Snow Leopard”. He was appointed head of the army a month ago.
He also told Ukrainian media on Friday that the number of soldiers needed at the front “has been significantly reduced” after resources were reviewed, Reuters reports.
In December, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the military proposed mobilizing an additional 500,000 troops.
