Ukrainian servicemen fire with a 105mm howitzer toward Russian positions near the city of Bakhmut amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Aris Messinis/AFP)
- Russia is building up forces in Kharkiv, says Ukraine.
- US weapons have been delivered to Ukraine.
- Khanty-Mansiisk regional governor Natalia Komarova announced her resignation.
Russia is building up forces near the northern part of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region where it launched an offensive this month, but it still lacks the troop numbers to stage a major push in the area, Ukraine’s top commander said on Thursday.
Ukraine says it has stabilised the front in the northeastern Kharkiv region where Russian forces launched a cross-border assault on 10 May that opened a new front in the 27-month-old war and stretched Kyiv’s outnumbered troops.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russia was continuing to send additional regiments and brigades from other areas and from training grounds to bulk up its troops on two main lines of attack in Kharkiv region’s north.
That includes the Strilecha-Lyptsi area between two small villages and the vicinity of the border town of Vovchansk where there has been street fighting.
“These forces are currently insufficient for a large-scale offensive and breakthrough of our defence,” Syrskyi said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
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He said Ukraine’s “creation of an ammunition reserve” had also reduced the offensive capabilities of Russian forces.
The remark suggested Kyiv’s acute shortages of artillery ammunition had eased since the United States finally approved a major aid package in April after months of delay.
Ukrainian servicemen drive a tank in the village of Chasiv Yar, near the city of Bakhmut in the region of Donbas amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Aris Messinis/AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that American weapons being delivered were helping to stabilise the Ukrainian front lines.
Russia has concentrated most of its offensive pressure in Ukraine’s east where its troops have been able to make slow incremental advances since capturing the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region in February.
Meanwhile, Natalia Komarova, the governor of Siberia’s oil-rich Khanty-Mansiisk region who was last year criticised for remarks she made about the war in Ukraine, announced on Thursday that she was resigning from her post.
Ukraine soldiers operate an armoured vehicle. (Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In a video posted on her official Telegram channel, Komarova, who oversaw a region which accounts for more than 40% of Russia’s total oil output, said she was moving to another undisclosed job even though her term in office does not expire until next year.
Komarova, who did not explain what had prompted her decision, was criticised by an anti-war activist last year who called for her to be prosecuted for discrediting the Russian army after she appeared to suggest that Moscow had not needed or been ready for what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
Aides said her remarks had been taken out of context and that Komarova supported the military.
In her resignation video, she thanked President Vladimir Putin for his trust and spoke of the efforts being made by Russian forces on the frontline.
Ukrainian soldiers ride an infantry fighting vehicle along a road not far from Bakhmut, Donetsk region amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP)
Komarova, 68, was the only serving female governor and had been at the helm of the regional administration since 2010.
Before that, she had headed the committee on natural resources at Russia’s State Duma lower house of parliament.
Local press has tipped the mayor of the city of Tyumen, Ruslan Kukharuk, as her successor as governor.
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