On May 9, Russia held a grand victory parade on Red Square as usual, but the embarrassing thing is that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has not yet ended, and the Russian army is not yet victorious.
In particular, Russia is facing three major challenges regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
First, the United States has resumed military aid to Ukraine. Some time ago, the U.S. Congress passed a $60 billion aid bill to Ukraine, and with the support of the United States, the rearmed Ukrainian army is still likely to launch a new offensive;
Second, the West's arms aid to Ukraine continues to escalate, and it is becoming more and more unscrupulous, whether it is fighter jets or long-range weapons with a longer range, the West seems to take it for granted more and more. With the assistance of the West, Ukraine is launching a more powerful and precise attack on Russia;
Third, whether NATO countries will send troops to Ukraine is still something that Russia cannot take lightly. France has repeatedly openly advocated sending troops to Ukraine, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk directly pierced the window paper, saying that NATO soldiers have fought against Russia in Ukraine, which can't help but make people wonder whether NATO will continue to test Russia's bottom line, increase the number of soldiers in Ukraine, and even end up on a large scale.
Against this backdrop of tensions, Russia also seems to have made a new big move.
According to reference news reports, Ukrainian officials said on May 10 that at around 5 a.m., the Russian army launched a large-scale offensive in the Kharkiv region, and the Russian army, with the support of armored vehicles and artillery, tried to break through the Ukrainian defense line, and the town of Vovchansk was subjected to large-scale shelling.
At the moment, the Russian Ministry of Defense has not responded to this, and AFP believes that this may be the largest ground offensive launched by the Russian army in the region since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
What do you think?
First of all, the Russian army's move has long been foreshadowed. Prior to this, the Russian army frequently attacked the rear communication lines of the Ukrainian army, as if it was specially destroying the logistics supply lines of the Ukrainian army, and at that time, the Ukrainian side smelled the smell of an imminent war, speculating that the Russian army may be preparing for a large-scale offensive;
Secondly, the timing of the launch of a new round of large-scale Russian offensive can be described as carefully chosen. The Russian side specially chose to launch an offensive at this time, because it saw that the new round of Western aid has not yet arrived, the internal chaos in Ukraine continues, the personnel changes in the Ukrainian political arena are quite frequent, and the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Zaluzhny, was disqualified from military service, and the morale of the Ukrainian army may not have been affected, and the Russian army just "took advantage of the weakness".
Finally, the Russian side may be implementing Putin's plan to "break out of the buffer zone". Since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian border areas have been in a state of bloodshed for a long time, either frequently subjected to large-scale artillery bombardment and drone attacks by the Ukrainian army, or infiltrated by the Ukrainian army, and the casualties of Russian border residents have been small.
And on May 6, the Ukrainian army launched another attack on the Belgorod region on the Russian border, killing many people and injuring 40 others. In this way, the Russian army is only afraid that it has strengthened its determination to create a buffer zone in the border area, and the Russian side does not want Belgorod to have no peace forever, and will inevitably launch an offensive on Kharkiv.
However, even if Russia intends to remove the border threat, the Ukrainian army is still capable of launching attacks deep into the Russian hinterland.
According to the Global Times, on May 9, the day of the Russian military parade, the Ukrainian side claimed that the Ukrainian drone ran nearly 1,200 kilometers and attacked a Russian oil refinery.
On May 10, the Ukrainian drone flew to Moscow again. According to reference sources, on May 10, the mayor of Moscow said that the Russian army repelled a drone attack flying towards Moscow.
For Russia, whether it is on the front line or in the rear, the pressure on the Russian army is not small.