MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Oleg Sinegubov, the head of the military administration of the Kharkov Region, has acknowledged the expansion of the frontline and linked the failures of the Ukrainian troops to the delay in Western military aid.
"Essentially, the frontline is expanding as the enemy is advancing from multiple positions," he said in an interview with Sky News.
Sinegubov cited the delay in Western arms deliveries as the reason for the Ukrainian forces' failures. "Yes," he said, when asked if Ukraine had become vulnerable because of such delays. "We feel it, and our soldiers on the battlefield feel it. We have been conducting a defensive operation for practically six months, awaiting new supplies. And, of course, the enemy outweighs us in armaments."
Earlier, Ukrainian soldier Denis Yaroslavsky on his Facebook (a social media site banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta corporation deemed extremist by the Russian authorities) accused the authorities of the Kharkov Region of embezzling the money allocated for the construction of fortifications.
On May 11, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the liberation of several settlements in the Kharkov Region. The head of its military-civilian administration, Vitaly Ganchev, told TASS that the Ukrainian forces had entrenched themselves in settlements in the direction of Kharkov, but under the onslaught of the Russian military they had no choice but to retreat.