Ukraine has had a rough week. The Russian offensive in Kharkiv, the same region Ukrainian forces liberated during a counteroffensive in September 2022, is once again an active theater of the war. The Russians have managed to claim as much as 10 kilometers since the middle of last week and are currently battling for Vovchansk, a town straddling the Ukrainian-Russian border. The situation got so serious that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky canceled his foreign travel plans. 

The Russians have reportedly taken more land over the last week than Ukraine did during its six- monthlong counteroffensive last year. Indeed the Ukrainian town of Robotyne, one of the few areas the Ukrainian army captured last year, is now apparently back in Russia’s hands.