Bloomberg: Russia trying to force evacuation of Kharkiv
Ukrainian and Western officials believe that Russia has increased the intensity of its attacks on Kharkiv to try to force an evacuation of civilians from Ukraine's second-largest city, Bloomberg reported on April 16.
Russia recently intensified attacks against Kharkiv, which had a population of 1.4 million in 2021, with the use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones, destroying energy infrastructure and killing civilians.
Russian forces failed to take Kharkiv in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, despite the fact the city lies less than 30 kilometers from the Russian border.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 6 that "Kharkiv is protected" amid news that Russia may attempt to launch another offensive.
Ukraine's military intelligence called the news of a potential attack on Kharkiv "part of a Russian psychological operation," adding that there were no signs of Moscow preparing new attack formations to carry out a ground offensive.
"U.S. and other Western officials agree that Russia doesn't have the capability to attack Kharkiv without a major replenishment of Russian troops, according to people familiar with the discussions."
Russia is instead making a "coordinated effort to cut off supplies and create conditions that make the city uninhabitable, Bloomberg said, citing officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The damage is extensive enough, and the attacks so unrelenting, that authorities will struggle to restore capacity before the cold sets in next winter," Bloomberg said.
More than $10 billion is needed to rebuild everything that Russian forces have damaged or destroyed in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said earlier in April.
Terekhov then told The Economist that Russia aims to make the city uninhabitable for civilians, but that Kharkiv was in a worse situation at the start of the full-scale war, when only 300,000 residents remained.
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