Aljazeera :
Russia escalated its aggressive war in Ukraine psychologically, tactically and economically in the past week, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted, “it’s a challenging moment”.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Russian soldiers had begun to train with the Belarusian military in tactical nuclear weapons, which the Kremlin has hinted could be used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“An escalation is ongoing. What should we do in this situation? We need to keep powder dry, including these lethal weapons,” Russian official news agency TASS quoted him as saying.
Russian forces opened a new front in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region, seizing villages near the border – an offensive Ukrainian officials had warned about days earlier.
Meanwhile in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin named an economist to streamline his Ministry of Defence and nationalise Russian defence industries. Some observers believed that was an indication of Putin’s long-term plans to prepare Russia to fight NATO.
Russian forces opened a northern front on Friday, contesting territory they abandoned at the end of May 2022, after failing to capture Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s major northern cities.
Ukrainian and Western experts said it aimed to sow panic, divert scant resources before new US weapons arrived, and facilitate territorial gains in Ukraine’s east, where the fiercest fighting was taking place.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Sunday evening address: “The intention of the strikes in Kharkiv Oblast is to stretch our forces and undermine the moral and motivational basis of Ukrainians’ ability to defend themselves.” “[Russian forces were] likely conducting the initial phase of an offensive operation north of Kharkiv City that has limited operational objectives but is meant to achieve the strategic effect of drawing Ukrainian manpower and materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.
The numbers of Russian troops appeared to confirm this. Ukrainian military commentators Konstantyn Mashovets and Alexander Kovalenko said Russia had committed about 2,000 soldiers to the front line, with about 2,000 more in immediate reserve and almost 4,000 due to arrive within a week of the initial attack.
