CNN
 — 

Russia has opened up a brand new entrance in its invasion of Ukraine, launching a shock offensive within the northeastern area of Kharkiv after focusing a lot of their forces this yr on the east.

The assault, which started earlier this month, noticed 1000’s of Russian troopers punch via the northern border, and compelled Ukraine to maneuver in troops from different areas to defend positions.

It serves for example of how Russia has been exploiting Ukraine’s predominant vulnerabilities: inadequate manpower, artillery shortages, sparse air defenses and insufficient defensive fortifications.

Ukraine’s frontline brigades are clinging on as they desperately await munitions from allies and recent recruits to supply some much-needed manpower.

CNN has laid out the three key frontiers the place preventing is now raging, monitoring the marginal positive aspects Russia has made alongside a frontline which had beforehand been frozen for months.

Within the north, Moscow’s troops are aiming to convey its troops inside tube artillery vary of Kharkiv metropolis. Alongside the southern entrance, the battle is on to recapture villages liberated throughout Ukraine’s counteroffensive final yr and push additional into Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine, in the meantime, is racing to repair its present weak spots after discovering itself on the again foot because it pledges to struggle “home by home, avenue by avenue.”

The cross-border assault noticed the Russians shortly take management of a number of villages.

Since then, Russia has ramped up its assaults within the space because it tries to take management of the important thing settlements of Vovchansk and Lypsti.

Lyptsi, which lies round 30 kilometers north of Kharkiv, is underneath heavy Russian bombardment. Capturing the massive village would permit Russian troops to place artillery inside vary of Kharkiv metropolis, Ukraine’s second largest, which is already weak to missile assaults, as this weekend’s strike on a ironmongery shop confirmed.

The assault additionally permits Russia to divert already thinly stretched Ukrainian sources away from different entrance traces, and to create a buffer zone from Ukrainian assaults on Russian border areas. The close by Russian metropolis of Belgorod, as an example, has more and more come underneath Ukrainian assault in current months.

The east – Avdiivka and Bakhmut

Earlier than the Kharkiv offensive, Russia had been largely focusing its offensive capabilities within the east, the place it had been inching ahead since October 2023 as Ukraine’s highly-anticipated counteroffensive floundered final summer season. Capturing Ukraine’s japanese industrial heartland – often known as the Donbas – stays a significant Kremlin objective.

In February, Moscow’s troops notched up a significant success alongside this entrance after they took the city of Avdiivka. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned that the choice to drag again was made to “save our troopers’ lives” and got here within the face of fixed, heavy Russian bombardment and a ten-to-one shell drawback.

Since then, Russian troops have made regular progress westwards within the course of Pokrovsk, which serves as an important army hub in Ukraine’s warfare effort.

A number of dozen kilometers to the north, japanese metropolis of Bakhmut was recaptured by the Russians in spring final yr following a grinding, nine-month battle. Now, Russia’s forces are edging west in direction of Chasiv Yar. Getting management of excessive floor on which the city sits would put Putin’s troops nearer to the strategic metropolis of Kramatorsk.

Additional to the south, Ukrainian forces are coming underneath stress southeast of Zaporizhzhia, one of many few areas the place they achieved success, albeit modest in measurement, in final summer season’s counteroffensive.

Each Russian army bloggers and Ukraine’s DeepStateMap report small Russian advances right into a pocket of recaptured Ukrainian territory.

Robotyne, a tiny village that’s now utterly destroyed, has modified arms a number of instances in the course of the warfare. It was first captured by Russian forces in early March 2022 and Moscow once more claimed management over it earlier this month, one thing denied by Ukraine. 

The battle for Robotyne highlights the fluidity of the battlefield and is a stark illustration of the character of the preventing, with the warfare being determined in brutal battles for sometimes deserted villages. 

Notes: “Assessed” means the Institute for the Examine of Battle has obtained dependable and independently verifiable data to show Russian management or advances in these areas. Russian advances are areas the place Russian forces have operated in or launched assaults, however they don’t management them. “Claimed” areas are the place sources have mentioned management or counteroffensives are occurring, however ISW can not corroborate nor show them to be false.