The commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in an interview with Ukrinform on Friday that any attempt by the Russian army to seize the city of Kharkiv would be “fatal” for Moscow’s troops, The Kyiv Independent notes.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, located just over 30 kilometers south of the border with Russia, has recently been targeted by Russian rockets, drones and aerial bombardments.

Russian “political elites” do not rule out that President Vladimir Putin will order a ground offensive to capture the city, reports Meduza.

A source close to the Kremlin believes that among Putin’s “more realistic goals” is the capture of Kharkiv followed by the gradual completion of the “special forces operation.”

Putin has publicly stated that a “buffer zone” needs to be created around Belgorod to stop attacks on the region, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

Sources from the “Russian elite” told “Meduza” that high-ranking military personnel are confident of their ability to capture Kharkiv, but believe that advancing further into Ukrainian territory may be “difficult.”

Ukrainians are building lines of fortifications

In an interview with the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, Syrskyi said that such an attack cannot be ruled out and that the Armed Forces of Ukraine “are taking all measures to adequately respond to such a possibility.”

“Today, we are carrying out large-scale work on strengthening territories and positions, installing a complex system of barriers,” said the Ukrainian general.

Some of Ukraine’s greatest victories during the full-scale invasion of Russia were celebrated by Syrskyi.

It was he who led the lightning offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, which led to the catastrophic collapse of the Russian front in northeastern Ukraine in September 2022, being the commander of the defense forces of Kyiv at the beginning of the war.

Snow leopard warning

Speaking about the liberation of part of the Kharkiv region in 2022 after seven months of Russian occupation, Sirskyi noted that the Ukrainian armed forces already have experience of military operations in the region, which caused a “large-scale collapse of the Russian front.”

“If the Russians go there again, Kharkiv will become a fatal city for them,” he added.

The general also noted that despite Kyiv’s forces being outnumbered and outgunned, Ukraine’s use of drones and high-precision artillery means Russian troops “can never feel safe” even far from the front line.

The commander of the Armed Forces also admitted that the situation on the front line remains “very difficult”, saying that Moscow’s forces continue to advance en masse and that it has recently significantly intensified the use of airstrikes and guided bombs that “destroy Ukrainian positions”. .

Russians prevail

Sirskyi also said that Russian forces now have a munitions advantage of about 6 to 1, adding that Ukraine is aided by high-precision munitions.

“Our gunners use high-precision ammunition to destroy enemy concentrations even dozens of kilometers from the front line,” he added.

Sirskyi headed the Ground Forces of Ukraine in 2019. Previously, he commanded the Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian forces in the east of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the fighting with which began in 2014, and the general received the nickname “Snow Leopard”. He was appointed head of the army a month ago.

He also told Ukrainian media on Friday that the number of soldiers needed at the front had “significantly reduced” after a review of resources, Reuters reported.

In December, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced that the military proposed to mobilize an additional 500,000 troops.