A new map shows Russia's advances in Ukraine as it inches its way toward the embattled country's second-largest city of Kharkiv, nearly a month after mounting a costly, cross-border offensive.
Russian forces recently recaptured "limited positions" in Vovchansk, northeast of Kharkiv, during fighting that included close-quarters combat in the city's center, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank, which published an interactive map on its website Monday.
Ukraine's military on Tuesday afternoon reported 42 clashes since the start of the day and said Russia was launching "insidious artillery strikes from its territory along the border of the Chernihiv and Sumy regions" northwest of Kharkiv.
The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces also said Russia was striking the Kharkiv region with "guided aerial bombs" and used two anti-aircraft guns to shell the rural settlement of Vil'cha, about 30 miles northeast of Kharkiv, according to a recent update posted on Facebook.
Ukrainian forces reportedly repelled three attacks east and southeast of Kharkiv and were engaged in two skirmishes with Russian troops in the same area.
"The situation is under control," according to the Ukrainian miltiary, which on Sunday used American rocket launchers to strike targets inside Russia with President Joe Biden's blessing.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry also said an additional 1,290 Russian personnel had been "eliminated" since Monday, bringing Russia's total troop losses to 512,420 since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to a chart posted on X, formerly Twitter.
In a Sunday column for the Kyiv Post, Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at Scotland's University of St. Andrews said the offensive Russia launched against Kharkiv May 10had turned into a "calamity," calling it "probably the most disastrous own-goal, strategic calculation so far since the failure of the original invasion."
Meanwhile, Russia was making steady advances in the easternmost Donbas region, where its troops have overrun a dozen small villages and fierce, house-to-house fighting was raging in the town of Ivanivske, the Kyiv Independent reported Tuesday.
Ukrainian soldiers reportedly fear that losing Ivanivske could help Russia encircle and capture the nearby city of Chasiv Yar, which is strategically located on high ground.
On Monday, Russian forces attempted to cross a canal in Chasiv Yar but were stopped by Ukrainian ambushes that destroyed several Russian armored vehicles, including a T-90M tank, according to the Ukrainian Euromaidan Press website.
