Kharkiv Defense Operation (February 24 — May 14, 2022)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the course of events of the Kharkiv defensive operation, which lasted from February 24 to May 14, 2022.

The novelty is that it presents the first comprehensive study of an important defensive operation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in domestic historiography.

The research methodology is based on the application of the problemchronological method, the method of analysis and synthesis, and the use of a wide range of official and unofficial sources.

Main results. The capture of Kharkiv was considered by the Russian command as one of the main tasks at the stage of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Due to its proximity to the border with the Russian Federation, the city was attacked in the first hours of the war. However, it was not possible to capture Kharkiv at once as planned. The reasons for this were the competently organized defense of the city, as well as the enemy’s underestimation of the fighting capacity of the Ukrainian forces, which led to the assignment of an obviously insufficient number of troops for the attack on Kharkiv. These factors also did not allow the Russian command to blockade the city. At the beginning of March 2022, the front line in the Kharkiv region stabilized. Russian troops took up positions on the northern and eastern outskirts of Kharkiv, shelling the city systematically. This situation persisted until the end of April, when the final stage of the Kharkiv defense operation began — the Ukrainian counteroffensive. As a result, by May 14, 2022, Russian troops were pushed back from the region northeast of Kharkiv. The breakthrough of the Kharkiv siege created a serious threat to the supply routes of the Russian group in the Izium direction, in addition to the liberation of more than 20 settlements, as well as pushing back the enemy for several tens of kilometers. As a result, the Russian command failed to realize its plan to surround and defeat the Ukrainian troops in Donbas. The conducted analysis made it possible to outline the prospects for further research, which lie in a more detailed study of the course of the Kharkiv defense operation with an emphasis on the study of its individual stages and episodes, the search for new sources, and their introduction into scientific handling.