Russians Poured Over Ukraine's Border. There Was Little to Stop Them.

Original source (on modern site) | Article images: [1] [2]

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

The stunning incursion into the Kharkiv Region lays bare the challenges facing Ukraine's weary and thinly stretched forces as Russia ramps up its summer offensive.

Nearly 10,000 residents had fled areas in Ukraine's Kharkiv Region as of Saturday, according to the region's governor. An elderly resident was evacuated from the town of Kozacha Lopan near the Russian border.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

Russian troops punched across Ukraine's northern border with such speed and force last week that Ukraine's meager fortifications offered almost no obstacle. Some Ukrainian soldiers, caught totally by surprise, fell back from their positions, and villages that had been liberated nearly two years earlier suddenly came under relentless shelling, forcing hundreds to flee in scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war.

"They are erasing streets," said Tetiana Novikova, 55, a retired factory worker who said she barely escaped with her life on Friday when her village of Vovchansk came under withering fire from Russian forces. As she fled the village where she had spent her whole life, she said, not a single Ukrainian soldier was in sight.

The stunning incursion into the Kharkiv Region lays bare the challenges facing Ukraine's weary and thinly stretched forces as Russia ramps up its summer offensive. The Russian troops pouring over the border enjoyed a huge advantage in artillery shells and employed air power, including fighter jets and heavy glide bombs, to disastrous effect, unhindered by depleted Ukrainian air defenses.

Once over the border, the Russian soldiers easily pushed past fortifications — like trenches, land mines and tank barriers — some of which, Ukrainian troops said, were insufficient or sloppily constructed.

But the biggest challenge for Ukrainian forces is people. Ground down over more than two years of war, Ukraine's military is struggling to come up with enough soldiers to effectively defend the 600-mile front line, even as Russian forces have swelled with thousands of newly mobilized troops.

Image

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces appeared to have slowed the Russian advance, though vicious fighting was reported along a ribbon of territory five miles from the Russian border. Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

UKRAINE

RUSSIA

SUMY

Vovchansk

Lyptsi

Kharkiv

UKRAINE

KHARKIV

40 miles

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

< Back to 68k.news PT front page