The 2024 Kharkiv offensive occurred on 10 May 2024 when the Russian Army mounted a surprise offensive into northern Ukraine as the tide of the Russo-Ukrainian War began to turn against the Ukrainians.
Ukraine had recaptured northern Kharkiv Oblast from the Russians during the 2022 Ukrainian eastern counteroffensive, but Russia intensified its bombing of Kharkiv in the spring of 2024, knocking out all the city's power generating capacity and its sub-stations. On 10 May 2024, Russian forces made two cross-border assaults inside northern Ukraine as part of a new wave of counteroffensive actions that included the Battle of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. Russian soldiers supported by armored vehicles moved across the border at 5 AM following a day of stepped-up attacks on the border area with guided aerial bombs and artillery, but Ukrainian forces, expecting such an offensive, deployed reserve units to strengthen defenses in the area. Four Russian battalions, numbering around 2,000 men, launched an assault on Krasne at the same time. While the initial attack wave was lightly-manned, around 40,000 Russian troops were stationed along the border for a future push. While Russia claimed to have captured Pylna, Borysivka, Krasne, and Strilecha, Ukraine claimed to have defeated the Russians at Vovchansk and Lyptsi. As Vovchansk suffered massive shelling, the Ukrainian government ordered the evacuation of residents of northern Kharkiv Oblast. Over the next week, Russian forces captured several border villages, but, by 16 May, the Ukrainian military claimed to have the situation under control as Russia reduced the number of armored vehicle assaults due to heavy losses. On 17 May, Putin claimed that there were no plans to capture Kharkiv; instead, Russia sought to create a buffer zone along the border to prevent the Ukrainians from shelling Belgorod. In late May, the United States authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to strike into Russian territory to defend Kharkiv, and, by 8-9 June, President Volodymyr Zelensky and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan declared that the Russian offensive had stalled out.