Khortytsia military commander was on the ground when Russia launched Kharkiv offensive in May

Lieutenant General Yurii Sodol, former commander of the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group of Forces, and former Joint Forces Commander, arrived at the operational command post of the 125th Territorial Defence Brigade on the morning of 10 May, when Russian forces launched their offensive on Kharkiv Oblast, and fought alongside the brigade as it repelled the Russian assault on Lyptsi. Source: Artur Horbenko, former commander of the 125th Territorial Defence Brigade, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda
Quote from Horbenko: "On 10 May, [Lieutenant] General Yurii Sodol, commander of the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group of Forces, was with me at the command post from the early morning until night.

I think he arrived before eight in the morning. He saw everything I did, he was accompanied by quite a big group of Khortytsia officers, maybe 10 of them. This group remained with me for three or four days, I think in order to oversee my actions.

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Yurii [Sodol] did not officially approve my decisions, but he heard everything... Perhaps he wasn't happy with all of it. But when the 172nd Vinnytsia Battalion retreated to Starytsia, which was a point of no return, he himself marked out the new defence line I was to take.

I think if he saw my actions as negligent, he would have been right to remove me from duties and take over the leadership or appoint someone else [to lead the operations]." 

Details: Horbenko said that Sodol was also at his command post on the second day of the Russian offensive, 11 May; he did not interfere in Horbenko's decisions but rather "gave advice and tried to help".

Background:

• In late June, Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) said it would look into the actions of Lieutenant General Yurii Sodol while he was in charge of the defence of the Kharkiv front after a request from Bohdan Krotevych, Chief of Staff of the Azov Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine.
• This investigation is part of the criminal case on the circumstances of the Russian breakthrough of the front in Kharkiv Oblast in May 2024. 

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