Ukraine commander: Russians unable to take Kharkiv

A Ukrainian army commander has said it would be impossible for Russia to take over Kharkiv, amid speculation the enemy may be planning to take the country's second largest city.

General Sergei "Marcel" Melnik, Chief of the Kharkiv Garrison, told the Associated Press on Sunday, "they can't move even one meter forward."

"They don't have enough forces to take the Kharkiv region," he said while inspecting positions on the outskirts of Kharkiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin may have ordered Russian forces to seize the city of Kharkiv and the rest of the unoccupied Kharkiv region despite the extreme improbability of success, according to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) research group.

As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in the south.

A Ukrainian strike on the Dnipro River bridge, the second in as many days, appeared intended to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region.