At a excessive level for Ukraine in its conflict in opposition to Russia, when its military was sweeping Russian forces from the nation’s northeast, a small-town police chief proudly hung a Ukrainian flag on his newly liberated metropolis corridor.
A 12 months and a half later, the policeman, Oleksiy Kharkivskyi, was dashing into the burning ruins of the identical city, Vovchansk, final week to evacuate its few remaining residents as Russian forces closed in.
“All over the place they arrive is simply razed to the bottom,” Mr. Kharkivskyi stated of the advance of the Russian troops, who’ve returned to the area with a scorched-earth ferocity, setting in movement one of many largest displacements of individuals for the reason that first months of the conflict.
Russian troops punched throughout the border between Russia and Ukraine this month and pushed towards Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, Kharkiv, which has a inhabitants of about 1,000,000 individuals. Navy analysts say Russia lacks the troops to seize the town however may advance to inside artillery vary, touching off a bigger circulation of refugees.
Militarily, the incursion appears meant to stretch Ukraine’s already skinny and underequipped forces by diverting troops from the Donbas area of jap Ukraine, nonetheless seen because the seemingly goal of a Russian offensive this summer time. It has additionally had the destabilizing impact of sending hundreds of dismayed, disheartened individuals from the border area deeper into Ukraine.
