Kremlin plans to devastate Kharkiv, making the city unlivable – The Economist
Photo: Main Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region
The troops of the Russian Federation have intensified their attacks on Kharkiv because the Kremlin wants to make this city an uninhabitable "grey zone."
The Economist writes about this with reference to military sources in Kyiv.
The article remembers that in December, the Russian Federation escalated its bombing in Kharkiv, coinciding with the news about problems with American military assistance.
The article notes that since then, the city has been hit by more rockets than at any time since the start of the war.
The Economist also notes that drone attacks have become more frequent in Kharkiv. Drones now fly faster and higher and have carbon-coated wings, which make them more difficult to shoot down.
In addition, since March 27, Russia has been attacking Kharkiv with guided aerial bombs. The first Russian attack on the city was carried out only five days after a missile attack destroyed almost all of Kharkiv's energy facilities, the publication writes.
It estimated that 16 people were killed and at least 50 others wounded in Kharkiv after more than a week of successive attacks using hover bombs, missiles, and drones.
The Economist also notes that Russia has started employing double-strike tactics, targeting the same location a second time to attack those who offer assistance following the initial strike.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, who gave an interview to the publication, strongly denies the hypothesis that Russia is trying to turn this city into a gray area.
"How can you make such a city a gray area? People will not leave because they have already left and then returned. They have been tortured enough," he said.
A Ukrainian source familiar with the intelligence told The Economist that Russia is currently training six divisions (approximately 120,000 troops) in Eastern Siberia. On April 3, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia will mobilize another 300,000 people by June, the publication stresses.
It writes that Kharkiv is one of several possible directions of a future Russian assault, although not the most likely. The Economist states that this would be a difficult task for Russia.
The article specifies that this would require a breakthrough in the Ukrainian defense and encirclement, which Russia is far from being able to do, the establishment of air superiority, which is not a given, and victory in the bloody urban campaign.
"There is a high probability that they will not succeed in any of this," Andriy Zahorodniuk, a Ukrainian expert and former defense minister, told The Economist.
Local businessman Denys Yaroslavskyi told the publication:
"They won't manage to capture Kharkiv, but destroying it is an option. We might bring up something similar to what happened in Aleppo."
Currently, the authorities of the Kharkiv region are considering the possibility of forced evacuation of children from the northern part of the region.
"The situation remains one of the most difficult. In Kharkiv, hourly outages are still scheduled. Currently, we are considering issues in the north—this is the Kharkiv district and directly the Bohodukhiv district, the Zolochiv direction. According to our information and the National Police, there are no more children in the border area, where there are settlements under enemy fire. However, we will monitor this situation again," Oleh Synehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said.
The regional military administration leader observed that the enemy had begun targeting settlements they had not attacked a month prior.
For reference:
Shelling of Kharkiv and the region has increased in recent days. In particular, on April 7, the aggressor country, Russia, launched another massive attack on Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region.
The Russians typically use S-300 systems to attack Kharkiv, but this week, they used the UMPB D-30 SN bomb, a large-caliber guided munition, to strike Kharkiv for the first time. This type of bomb is based on the FAB-250, a general-purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead.
The Russians destroyed the entire critical energy infrastructure of Kharkiv with missile and drone strikes. Currently, 150,000 residents of the city remain without electricity.
