Zelenskyy-Russian Advance Halted At 10km;  Kharkiv Situ 'Stabilised'

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that the deepest part of the Russian advance into the Kharkiv oblast is 10km, before going on to say that the situation along the frontier is 'stabilising'. Overnight, Kharkiv was hit by several Russian drones in the longest air raid of the war to date, causing fires in the Osnovyanskyi district but as of yet it is unclear whether there have been any casualties.

• The situation on the frontlines remains clouded in the fog of war, with street fighting taking place in the border town of Vovchansk. Russian forces have made significant efforts to take the town, but a Ukrainian military spox has claimed that the efforts had been 'foiled'.
• Crucially for Ukraine's defences, not just in Kharkiv oblast but along the front, Zelenskyy says that his country's forces now have enough artillery shells. Shortages of shells had severely hampered Ukrainian forces' ability to repel Russian advances Donetsk over the course of 2024 so far.
• Speaking following a meeting of NATO defence chiefs in Brussels on 16 May, supreme allied commander for Europe General Christopher Cavoli claimed that “I know the Russians don't have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough. They don't have the skill and the capability to do it, to operate at the scale necessary to exploit any breakthrough to strategic advantage. They do have the ability to make local advances and they have done some of that.”