UKRAINE, June 19 — On the section between Raihorodka and Novovodiane in the occupied Luhansk Oblast, Russia gathered up to 10,000 personnel and nearly 450 units of military equipment, including 200 artillery systems to advance on Borova in Kharkiv Oblast, wrote Ukrainian open-source intelligence monitoring site DeepState which tracks changes on the frontline on June 18. Gwara Media couldn’t independently verify the reports.
Russia started a new offensive north of Kharkiv Oblast in May, aiming to stretch Ukrainian reserves and equipment. Ukraine’s military reported that the frontline is now stabilized, but the threat of Russians opening another vector for their offensive remains.
According to DeepState, Russia’s goal is to first reach the Nadia-Novoyehorivka line and move to the Pershotravneve-Cherneshchina line before moving towards Borova in Izium district. OSINT specialists write that during the last three weeks, Russia prepared for the attack, searching for weaknesses in the AFU’s defenses in the area.
Borova is a settlement about 17 miles southeast of Kharkiv. Russians occupied Borova in March 2022, and the Ukrainian army liberated it during the Kharkiv counteroffensive.
“[They conduct] unstopping attacks on the positions of 3rd separate assault brigade,” DeepState wrote. They said that two to four hundred recently mobilized Russian troops come in that direction weekly.
“The meat assault tactic hasn’t yielded significant results yet because a strong brigade is stationed in this area. But we emphasize that the forces are far from equal.”
Serhii Zgurets, CEO of Defense Express, said in the interview with Espresso that Russia wants to control Borova and split Armed Forces holding positions from Kupiansk to Kreminna in two sections, “complicating the logistics of Ukrainian forces.”
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