Xu Shu Studio
Written by Cheng Liang
In early May 2022, the Ukrainian army carried out a "big counterattack" against the Russian army in the direction of the Kharkiv battle. On May 15, the Ukrainian army released a video of the 227th Battalion of the 127th Brigade of the 127th National Land Defense "established a boundary monument" on the Russian-Ukrainian border, announcing that the Ukrainian army had "counterattacked" to the Russian-Ukrainian border. For a time, public opinion was in an uproar, and many observers speculated that, with Ukraine's so-called "Kharkov counterattack" and "counterattack to the Russian-Ukrainian border", the war has entered the "strategic counterattack" stage of Ukraine. Ukrainian ground forces may penetrate deep into Russia or pose a huge threat to the Russian army's combat cluster supply line on the northern line of Donbas.
However, more than a month has passed, the so-called Ukrainian "Kharkov counterattack" ended ineffectively, and there is no way to talk about "threat the Russian army's rear route of the northern cluster of Donbass". On the contrary, Du Ding, head of Kharkov's Ukrainian national security department who was removed from office by Zelensky, revealed that the "boundary pile incident" of the Ukrainian army was a scandal of complete hype and false propaganda. In short, the "Kharkov counterattack" that was highly anticipated by the Ukrainian army and even some domestic people has become a mess. What exactly happened to
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How did the Russian and Ukrainian armies set up "POSE"
April 19, when the Russian army launched the second phase of the campaign, its main attack direction in the northern line was located about 100 kilometers southeast of Kharkov Ijiumhm l4 to the northern bank of the North Donetsk River in Kremenaya, and on the front of Kharkov, the Russian army has a small number of troops - in the northwest suburbs of Kharkov, the Russian army is equipped with two battalions of the 200th Brigade of the Northern Fleet of the Moon; in the northeast suburbs of Kharkov, the Russian army deployed the 64th Brigade of the Red Flag of the Eastern Military Region in Shestakove, Old Sarjiv and other places. The brigade has three Moon battalions and a tank battalion, two self-propelled howitzer battalions and one rocket launcher battalion; the two brigade combat teams showed a clamping position against Kharkov from the northeast and northwest directions. In order to enhance the stability of the defense line, the Russian army deployed the 27th Brigade of the Western Military Region in the depth of the battle, and arranged a territory of about Cossacklopan in the northern border area of Kharkov to Zhuravlevka in Belgorod Oblast, Russia. The three brigade combat teams are supporting each other and can echo each other in the battle situation.
In addition, in the campaign, the Russian army fully considered the importance of the North Donetsk River about 30 kilometers east of Kharkov, so it used the 2nd Division of the Western Military Region, the 38th Brigade of the Eastern Military Region, and the 35th Brigade of the Eastern Military Region. With the cooperation of the National Guards, they occupied the existing positions on the front lines of Wolchensk, Dabulluk, Shevchenkovo, and Balacreya, and built a river defense system based on the North Donetsk River, completing the cover for the right wing of the northern Donetsk cluster.
(Photo Note: Russia-Ukraine confrontation situation)
Compared with the Russian army, after the battle around Kiev, the Ukraine army liberated a large number of mobile troops, and at the same time mobilized a large number of National Guard, Land Defense Brigade and other units, causing the Ukraine troops around Kharkov to expand sharply since early April: the Ukraine army originally deployed the 92nd Brigade of the Oriental Command, the 3rd Brigade of the National Guard Operations Brigade and other departments in Kharkov. In early April, the 93rd Brigade of the Ukraine Army, which completed the -Sumi- battle, was transferred to the direction of Kharkov, and was originally configured in H. Part 14th Ukrainian military aircraft brigade around tml3 Kiev was also transferred to Kharkiv; the two land defense brigades in Kharkiv and Sumei quickly mobilized, and a large number of miscellaneous neo-Nazi militias were mobilized, such as the Kharkov branch of the "Azov" detachment urgently mobilized two battalions of combat teams and received support from NATO weapons; the "Simon" punishment battalion composed of prison prisoners was also deployed to the direction of Kharkiv. The 43rd Heavy Artillery Brigade and the 17th Rocket Armor Brigade of the Ukrainian army stationed in Khmelniksky respectively dispatched 1 battalion of heavy artillery /long-range rocket launcher to strengthen the Ukrainian army in Kharkiv.
(Photo Note: The "Simon" punishment camp composed of neo-Nazi heavy prisoners captured the place, and thick smoke appeared without large-scale battles...)
In short, in late April, the Ukrainian army's troops arranged around Kharkov had actually formed a heavy army group, consisting of four mechanized brigade combat teams, two national defense brigade combat teams (but, only one mechanized battalion), and three independent battalion combat teams. Note that the above units do not include the Ukrainian national security department, border defense department, city police department, special forces and foreign mercenaries forces in Kharkov.
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What was the performance of the Russian and Ukrainian armies in the Battle of Kharkov?
(Picture Note: Some important locations)
Different from what many people expected, the Ukrainian army launched a counterattack against the Russian army with Kharkov as the attack starting point, which was launched from the flank of Ijium. On April 20, the 93rd Ukrainian Army Aircraft Brigade passed a long-distance march and launched a campaign attack on Ijium from Grushuwaha and Dacomi Shuwaha, trying to break the Ijium flank in one fell swoop, breaking the Russian army's spearhead moving south. In the early stages of the battle, the Ukrainian army made relatively smooth progress and successfully captured Zawoji, about 8 kilometers north of Great Comeshuwaha, opening the door to Ijum. However, the Russian army's 4th Division quickly launched a counterattack. On the 24th, the 93rd Brigade of the Aircraft was defeated and had to retreat to the front line of Dacomi Shuvaha to reorganize its defense. The Russian army pursued relentlessly and seized the Great Comeshuwaha, which was attacked by the 93rd Brigade at the end of April. The Ukrainian army was expelled to the other side of the Bereka River. In the early stage, they tried to implement a fast assault on the Russian army and fought with fast speed, but ended in failure.
(Photo note: In the battle west of Ijium, the T-80U tank of the 4th Division of the 93rd brigade seized by the Russian army in the first phase and was taken back by the Russian army)
Then, the Ukrainian troops on Ijium's right wing changed their playing style and moved north of Great Comeshuwaha, trying to build an boat bridge in Zavgorodne, Protopo Pivka and other places, smuggle the North Donetsk River, and cross the forest on the west side of Ijium city, and directly attack the Ijium city area. However, the Ukrainian army's operation to build a pontoon bridge was discovered by the Russian army, and then used the 9M723 "Iskander" tactical missile to strike the pontoon bridge. At the same time, the artillery troops bombarded the Ukrainian army's assembly site on the other side of the river. The Ukrainian army tried to build bridges many times but failed and was forced to withdraw from the battle around May 10. Only a small number of special operations and reconnaissance units were left on the spot, entering the forest in the form of small smuggling groups, harassing the Russian troops on the Ijium front line. It is reported that in this round of attack, more than 200 soldiers died and disappeared in the 93rd Brigade of Ukraine, dozens of tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed and seized, several sets of craft bridge equipment were destroyed, and the remaining troops returned to the surrounding areas of Kharkov to rest.
(Photo Note: Due to the heavy casualties, the 93rd Brigade of the Machine announced that it would refuse to fight)
While the Ukrainian army was counterattacking in the direction of Ijium, it also carried out a counterattack in the northwest direction of Kharkov. On April 23, the Mojian Battalion of the 127th Brigade of the Ukrainian Army's Land Defense dispatched more than 10 tanks and more than 30 infantry fighting vehicles to attack Zhuravlevka in the direction of Cossacklopan, trying to rush into Russia. The Russian border defense forces stationed in the Berderod border area used anti-tank missile to curb the Ukrainian army's offensive momentum. Subsequently, the 27th Brigade of Neimo, located in the deep area, arrived at the battlefield. The Russian artillery and the powerful T-90M main battle tanks quickly shattered the Ukrainian army's adventure, destroyed more than ten Ukrainian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Dozens of Ukrainian corpses were discarded on the battlefield, and the rest of the Ukrainian army fled.
After the Ukrainian army failed to fight back continuously in Ijum and Cossacklopan, the Ukrainian army changed its main attack direction again and launched an attack in the northeastern suburbs of Kharkov. To this end, the Ukrainian army mobilized three combat teams, namely the 92nd Aircraft Brigade, the 3rd National Guard Operation Brigade, and the 117th National Land Defense Brigade, and equipped them with special units such as the "Sirens" Punishment Battalion". The 93rd Aircraft Brigade, which later withdrew from the Ijium direction, was also put on the battlefield.The above troops began to attack in early May. The main battles ranged from the Orkhov hills of Kharkov, Ukraine in the west and to the North Donetsk River in the east. The width was about 30 kilometers. The main battle opponents were the 64th brigade of the Russian army.
Faced with the superior forces of the Ukrainian army, the 64th brigade of the Eastern Russian Military Region, within the Hongqi 35th brigade of the Eastern Russian Military Region, took the initiative to retreat, while the 200th brigade of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Army and some Russian Army's 27th brigade of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Army, located on the other side of the front, also chose to retreat voluntarily in order to avoid forming prominent points in front of the dominant enemy. As a result, the Ukrainian army seized some of the key points previously occupied by the Russian army without fierce fighting. For example, the old Sarjiv, located on the west bank of the North Donetsk River, was captured by the Ukrainian "Sirmon" battalion on May 2, and then carried out three days of burning, killing and looting in the area; Zirkuni, located in the northern suburb of Kharkov, the Ukrainian army entered before May 10, and the local area had lost traces of the Russian army. Subsequently, the Ukrainian army's "counterattack" was unstoppable, and it regained a large number of settlements to the north in succession, and completed a breakthrough of about 30 kilometers on May 15. It is said that the 227th Battalion of the 127th Brigade of the Ukrainian Army completed the "Photography of the Border Monument" ceremony on the Russian-Ukrainian border north of Dernova, and officially announced that the Ukrainian army "had counterattacked to the border" and "winned the victory of the Kharkiv counterattack." At the same time, a large number of Ukrainian troops gathered on the front line of the North Donetsk River, trying to cross the North Donetsk River through the old Sarziv, Rubizhne, Starizia and other places, threatening the Russian army's important settlement on the left bank of the North Donetsk River.
But it is worth noting that during the "counterattack", the Ukrainian army had almost no large-scale war with the 64th Brigade of the Morocco. There were very few results worth mentioning, and there were not even a few photos of the Russian combat soldiers who were killed and injured. This means that the 64th brigade of the Russian military in this area has not lost its combat effectiveness and is just performing mobile defense.
As expected, just as the Ukrainian army was complacent about "counterattacking to the border area", the counterattack of the Russian army was launched in a lightning momentum: On May 19, the Russian army quickly captured Dernova and Barak in the Russian-Ukrainian border area, and the attack arrow pointed to Up Salziv. This put the Ukrainian army, which had entered Starizia and was preparing to cross the river from the place to attack Volchensk, and forced the Ukrainian army to join the reserve team and fight to the death to ensure Barak and Upper Salziv. At the same time, another Russian army also entered Kharkov Prefecture from the north and took over Lipchi, a small town at the northern end of the Orkhov hills.
After about 10 days of fighting, almost all Ukrainian troops were driven back to the attack starting point. As for the 227th Battalion of the Land Defense Brigade, which "plugs the boundary marker" on the border line, fled in panic after being violently attacked by Russian artillery, and even the boundary marker was seized by the Russian army. By June 1, the Ukrainian troops that were carrying out counterattacks in northeast Kharkov had lost all their offensive momentum and were unable to continue their attack. Instead of continuing to pursue the Russian army, they chose to retreat to a favorable defensive position and standby.
(Photo note: The Russian army seized the "boundary marker" used by the Ukrainian army for posing)
A "Kharkiv counterattack" ended in a slight manner.
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"Kharkov counterattack" Why is it a mess?
When the Ukrainian army launched a counterattack on the battlefield around Kharkov, many Chinese and foreign observers had high expectations for it, believing that the Ukrainian army's counterattack was enough to drive the Russian army away from the existing defensive land and regain the lost land north of Kharkov. Some observers believe that the Ukrainian counterattack north of Kharkov is enough to threaten the logistics supply line of the Russian military's northern battle cluster in Donbas, which may make the entire Russian military's northern cluster in the urn, and judge that the Kharkov counterattack "will become a turning point in the battle situation."
So, why did the Kharkov counterattack carried out by the Ukrainian army not have the effect that these observers expected, but instead became a mess without any results?
There are many reasons.
First talk about the intention of the battle and the situation of the battle: the Ukrainian army's intentions are relatively clear, and there seems to be no big problem. During the right wing of Ijum, the Ukrainian army tried to pose a major threat to the flanks of the Russian army fighting south of Ijum, forcing the Russian army to turn south of Ijum to the forest area on the west and fight with the Ukrainian army, thereby blocking the Russian army from Slaviyansk ; and in the battle between the northeast and northwest of Kharkov, the Ukrainian army not only tried to expel the Russian army to the border area, but also prepared to cross the North Donetsk River and seize the important border settlement of Volchensk, thus threatening the important supply routes on the northern wing of the Russian army's Donbas cluster. From this perspective, the Ukrainian army's intentions in battle are clear, which can theoretically pose a threat to the Russian army.
However, the Ukrainian army had a big problem in the overall battle situation: in the first stage of the offensive battle against the Ijium flank, the Ukrainian army dispatched only one aircraft 93 Brigade (may have strengthened some of the troops of the 14th Brigade) to participate in the attack, and the Russian army in front of them should be the 1-2 regiment combat teams of the 4th Division of the Tanzania Division. With the overall strength of the Ukrainian army, it is completely insufficient to repel the same units of the Russian army in field battles - not to mention that the Ukrainian army is in an offensive state and the Russian army is in a defensive state (the attacking side often needs to invest more troops than the defense side). As a result, the 93rd Brigade of Machinery was indeed useless. The second phase of the operation led by the Land Defense Brigade, attacking Cossacklopan and attempting to rush into Russia, was a complete military disaster.
The intentions of the Ukrainian army are unclear, and even the formation of the offensive echelon is unclear. It seems to be a completely political offensive, with the purpose of winning the championship of "first attack on Russia", and at the same time leaving a good impression on the West led by the United States to seek more aid. However, due to the poor combat effectiveness of the national defense brigade, it was hit by the Russian army's 27th brigade with heavy casualties.
Only the third stage of the offensive against the northeast of Kharkov was the overall campaign of the Ukrainian army, and the superior forces were concentrated to advance step by step, achieving certain battle results in the early stage. However, from the perspective of the Russian army's battle situation, it is obvious that it is mobile defense plus elastic defense situation. The troops located in the defensive land area are more stockpiled and less scattered. When facing the superior forces of the Ukrainian army, they actively retreated, deliberately introduced the Ukrainian army into the fire-killing area they created. After waiting for the Ukrainian army to form a tactical protrusion and reach the peak of the offensive, they immediately launched a large-scale counterattack, using artillery to attack the Ukrainian army's offensive path, and using front-line aviation troops to attack the Ukrainian army's supply lines and blocking the subsequent echelons of the Ukrainian army into battle. When the Ukrainian army had far inferior to the Russian army's tactical capabilities and had a large gap in attack methods compared to the Russian army, the Ukrainian army had no choice but to implement elastic and mobile defense against the Russian army. The troops located in the protruding parts were gradually collapsed, resulting in too many casualties in the entire offensive group and eventually retreated. From this perspective, the "gold content" of the Ukrainian army's offensive against the northeast of Kharkov in the third stage is far less than many people expected.
On the tactical level, the Ukrainian army has a greater disadvantage. In addition to the combat effectiveness of tactical units such as armor, , , and tactically weaker than that of Russian troops, the Ukrainian army, it also lacks effective field air defense and anti-missile capabilities. In the Russian army's flexible defense campaign, the front-line aviation has a considerable role, and the Su-25SM strike plane played an extremely important role in the battle to attack the second echelon of the Ukrainian army and search for the Ukrainian artillery. In the bridge building operation of Ukrainian troops on the North Donetsk River, the 9M723 "Iskander" tactical missile of the Russian army's civilian tactical missile brigade was the main attack method, destroying a large number of pontoon bridges set up by Ukrainian troops on the North Donetsk River. Facing the front-line aviation of the Russian army, the Ukrainian army had almost no choice. A small number of portable air defense missiles, , could not pose an effective threat to the Russian army's attack aircraft, and in the face of the Russian army's "Iskander" missiles, , the Ukrainian army was even more desperate and lacked effective countermeasures. Combining the above factors further expand the tactical disadvantages of the Ukrainian army when fighting between the Russian army.
In fact, from the perspective of the entire northern battle situation in Donbas, even if the Ukrainian army was able to build a bridge on the North Donbaske River and successfully seize Wolchensk, it would be unable to threaten the supply line of the Russian army's entire Donbaske North Wing cluster. The most efficient supply line of the Russian Donbas North Wing Cluster is not the self-righteous supply line of Volchensk, Great Burluk, Kupyansk to Ijum, but the railway supply line from Voronezh to transport directly from Voronezh , and then from kupyansk to Borova. Currently, it can be transported to Chongliman. This is located more than 60 kilometers behind the North Donetsk front, and the Ukrainian army is completely unable to threaten the above supply line. What's more, the supply lines of the Russian troops fighting on the front line of North Donetsk were transported to Staloboske via Rostov , and then transferred from Staloboske to Rubirinoye. This is a supply line located in the deep depths of the Russian front, and the Ukrainian army could not threaten it.
(Photo Note: The Ukrainian army equipment seized by the Russian army is the BTR-4 infantry fighting vehicle and the T-64BV main battle tank, respectively)
Therefore, the so-called "Kharkov counterattack" of the Ukrainian army can pose a threat to the Russian army and capture Wolchensk can threaten the rear of the Russian army cluster in northern Donbas, which is just a wishful imagination of some observers. Compared with the Russian army, there is still a huge gap. As the Ukrainian army's contract soldiers gradually exhausted, and a large number of mobilized men with worse combat effectiveness began to fill the troops, the overall combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian army will only become worse and worse than that of the Russian army, making it more difficult to pose a threat to the Russian army.
After writing
About the Russian-Ukrainian war, the news about the information can be described as "flying all over the sky", true and false, false, false and false, based on only one side (whether it is the Russian side, Ukrainian side, or the US side, etc.) is not too reliable and is easily led to deviance, because the reports of the same incident are often very different, which is a headache. The author of this article is a professional in the military field. He has accumulated over the years and is good at analyzing and identifying different news and conducting comprehensive analysis and judgment based on scattered information. has been tracking for a long time since the Russian-Ukrainian War. What is more important is that the author also has his own source channels for information.
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Profile of the founder of "Xu Shu Studio"
Xu Shu, Sichuan native , a doctor of military science, worked in the theater-level organs and was in "Liberation and Rest". Media such as Military Daily and Bookstore have published more than 70 articles, and have been interviewed by Phoenix TV and other media. They have been invited to Huawei and have given more than ten speeches. They have published the monograph " This is the US Military " (preface written by Lieutenant General Wang Hongguang). They have been printed five times in the first year of publication. They have often ranked in the top 3 on JD's new book hotselling list, and have been on the Sanlian Bookstore bestselling list, and have entered the Public Library of New York and the National Library of Australia. Now a studio has been established to focus on studying the US military.
latest and co-published the book "Military Way" (subject recommendations by two teachers, Qiao Liang and Yu Ge , Lieutenant General Wang Hongguang and Ren Guoqiang, and cover recommendations by famous artists such as Jiang Ming , Jiang Xiaoyuan , Yang Lang and other famous artists). The main content is 21 major military reforms in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad.
