Ukraine’s Army Chief Issues ‘Fatal’ Warning to Russia Over New Offensive

Ukraine’s army chief has warned Russia against launching a renewed offensive on the city of Kharkiv.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, issued the warning in an interview with Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, responding to reports that Moscow is preparing its forces to seize Ukraine’s second-largest city, which is located near the Russian border. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned this week of a looming Russian offensive that could begin in late May or June.

“We cannot ignore any information about the enemy’s preparations for offensive actions, so we are taking all measures to respond to such a possibility in a relevant way,” said Syrskyi, who was appointed in February.

The army chief said Kyiv’s forces are preparing “to fortify our territories and positions, installing a comprehensive system of barriers, and planning actions of our troops in the event of such an attack.”

“We already have experience of combat operations in Kharkiv oblast. We managed to ‘calculate’ the actions of the enemy and liberate a large part of Kharkiv oblast,” said Syrskyi, referring to a lightning offensive that liberated swaths of Kharkiv region in fall 2022.

“It was then that the Russian front collapsed significantly. If the Russians go there again, Kharkiv will become a fatal city for them,” Syrskyi warned.

Earlier this week, sources among the “Russian elite” and high-ranking security officials told independent Russian news outlet Meduza that a Russian attempt to seize Kharkiv is “quite a probable scenario.”

Citing sources close to the Kremlin and a high-ranking employee of Russia’s Ministry of Defense, independent Russian news outlet Verstka said on March 22 that Russia may be planning to recruit tens of thousands of soldiers into the army as part of a “covert mobilization” with the aim of eventually encircling Kharkiv.

Newsweek couldn’t independently verify the reports and has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Syrskyi said in his Ukrinform interview that while Ukraine is grateful to its Western allies for military support, “we would be even more grateful if this help came quickly and in sufficient quantity.”

“It is worth admitting: We could not achieve greater success during the Kharkiv offensive because we did not have enough resources,” he said. “The lack of resources and the necessary amount of ammunition gave the Russians the opportunity to dig deep into the ground in the south of Ukraine, in the Zaporizhzhia region, and the assault on these positions, without effective air support, cost us human losses and equipment.”

He continued: “The last case is Avdiivka. We would certainly maintain these positions if we had a sufficient number of anti-aircraft weapons and artillery shells.”

Ukraine’s forces withdrew from the embattled fortress city of Avdiivka, which is in the eastern Donetsk region, in February after a months-long battle.

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