Russia Presses Toward Kharkiv as Vovchansk Fighting Continues, BBC Reports

Weeks after Russia’s surprise operation in northeastern Ukraine, the BBC says the shape of the front line has largely remained unchanged, with heavy fighting around Vovchansk, about 5 kilometers from the Russia–Ukraine border.

“Heavy fighting around the city of Vovchansk, which lies about 5 kilometers from the Russia–Ukraine border”

BBC

The BBC reports that Russia advanced toward the Kharkiv region and retook some areas occupied in the early days of the full-scale invasion but later abandoned, while Ukraine’s outlook looked bleak as Russia appeared ready to push toward Kharkiv.

BBC

Ukraine’s second-largest city, with a prewar population of about 1.4 million, remains contested as the BBC describes Russia’s failure to fully seize Vovchansk and Chasiv Yar, which it says would cut Ukraine’s military supply lines and facilitate access to broader territories.

The BBC attributes part of the course of the war to delayed Western aid deliveries because “Western decision-making processes for delivering aid took months,” and it adds that the U.S. Congress approved a $61 billion military aid package in April.

The BBC also says Ukrainian officials report the Russian Air Force has been dropping up to 100 gravity bombs daily in recent weeks, while Ukraine seeks authorization from Western allies to use foreign-supplied equipment to strike targets inside Russian soil.

In a separate account of the war’s wider effects, Polskie Radio frames a U.S.-China summit communiqué that pledged a “constructive relationship of strategic stability” while avoiding the word “war,” and it says Ukraine was referenced only as the “Ukrainian crisis.”

Polskie Radio quotes Rush Doshi, who served as China Director on the National Security Council under President Biden, warning that even tough sanctions against China would not deter an invasion quickly enough, noting the world failed to draw that lesson from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

CNN

The BBC reports that by the end of May the Kharkiv region offensive had subsided, and it cites Russian military blogger Alexander Kots saying Ukraine deployed substantial reserves toward Vovchansk and that “we [the Russian forces] should not expect significant advances in a short time.”

Polskie Radio also brings in defense analyst David Axe, who says technologies developed in Ukraine could deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan and that Taipei could build what Axe calls a “drone wall” to flood surrounding airspace and waters with thousands of cheap but lethal unmanned vehicles.

The BBC adds that Ukraine’s ability to counter gravity bombs depends on Western decisions, including authorization to strike inside Russian soil, while it notes the U.S. rethink of allowing Ukraine to use weapons provided by the United States against Russian soil.

As the war grinds on, Polskie Radio says Washington has called on European nations to provide security guarantees for Ukraine and finance arms purchases for Kyiv, while it describes interceptor missile shortfalls and some missiles redirected to the Middle East.

The BBC reports that the U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the agreement on using American weapons would extend “to wherever Russian forces move from the Russian border toward Ukraine to seize more areas of Ukraine,” and it notes that authorization was not easily granted in the West.

Tabnak, citing IRNA, quotes Donald Trump saying, “The Ukraine war is Biden's war; I am seeking to stop it, not escalate it,” and it adds that Trump said Zelensky can end or continue the war and that Crimea “will not be returned.”

Polskie Radio also describes how Ukraine’s value to Gulf states has increased after Zelensky concluded a diplomatic tour working on security deals to help several Arab states defend themselves against drone warfare, a development Moscow is said to be “not at all pleased with.”

In the BBC’s account of the operational stakes, it says capturing Vovchansk and Chasiv Yar would cut Ukraine’s military supply lines and facilitate access to broader territories, giving Russia a significant advantage even as the offensive slows.