Two weeks into the offensive, one group of Russian forces is already fighting in the streets of the town of Vovchansk about 70 kilometers away from the city of Kharkiv, while the other is trying to push toward the town of Lyptsi, just under two dozen kilometers away from the city.
The Kremlin has options for what it can try to accomplish in the area: depopulating Kharkiv, taking territory, and most importantly, getting Ukraine to commit reserves needed elsewhere.
So far, Russian troops seem at least partially successful with the latter two. Multiple border villages have reportedly been captured and some Ukrainian units have been moved in from outside Kharkiv to reinforce the defense of the region.
Equally. The Germans couldn’t get to Moscow because the mud slowed them down. When they finally got there, or almost there, the guns and tanks froze solid and the only remaining good Russian troops got pulled back from Siberia (Japan invasion was believed to not be happening and troops got redeployed).
Then they hit the German army at the perfect moment.
The Germans very almost fucked up Moscow and they annihilated everything on their way. Would have been real interesting if they got to Moscow.