Clement Molin’s breakdown of the Kharkiv sector is useful because it shows exactly how moscovian “encirclements” are manufactured. The claim about thousands of Ukrainian soldiers trapped near Velykyi Burluk is not a battlefield fact; it is a content product designed to feed Telegram channels and pressure Ukrainian command into reacting emotionally rather than operationally.
The Velykyi Burluk Illusion
Look at the actual map. Kazacha Lopan is a flag display. A few guys with a phone and a tricolor do not equal control of a settlement. Molin has spent months documenting how many of those videos are old, mislabeled, or outright fake.
The claim about thousands of Ukrainian soldiers trapped near Velykyi Burluk constitutes a direct intelligence assessment. It exists to feed Telegram channels. It gives Western doomscrollers a reason to ask why Kyiv is losing. And it pressures Ukrainian command into reacting emotionally rather than operationally.
Infiltration, Not Breakthrough
The Vovchansk sector is more serious because Ukrainian fortifications sit further south. That allows small Russian groups to cross on foot, move through forest belts, and try to slip past positions. This is infiltration, not a breakthrough. It creates noise. It forces Ukrainian units to spend resources on sweeps. It generates exactly the kind of panic content we are seeing now.
The auxiliary push east of Vovchansk, where infantry advanced ten to fifteen kilometers under heavy air cover, follows the same pattern. Ugly, costly, but not an operational encirclement unless Ukrainian forces freeze and stop clearing the infiltrators. Molin is right that the threat is manageable if the response is methodical.
The Kupiansk Direction
The Kupiansk direction deserves close attention. Russians are trying to get into the city itself while Ukraine counterattacks around Dvorichna. Control of a key supply hub is genuinely being fought over.
What moscovia is doing here is not new. The same approach repeats from Bakhmut to Avdiivka to every grinding sector:
- Send small groups.
- Claim huge victories.
- Force the defender to react to headlines instead of geography.
Russian command lying to its own higher command about controlled villages signals weakness. The system’s dependency on fiction is evident. And when the fiction collapses, the infantry who posed for those flag videos are the ones left in basements waiting for Ukrainian drones.
Movement Without Control
So, you won’t find a cauldron at Velykyi Burluk. There is a difficult sector. There is a competent Ukrainian response. There is a Russian information machine working overtime to turn tactical infiltration into strategic panic.
Encirclements that exist only in the minds of people who need Ukraine to be losing.
Molin’s mapping matters because it strips the propaganda down to what it actually is. Movement without control. Claims without evidence. Encirclements that exist only in the minds of people who need Ukraine to be losing.
