As in 1943, so in 2023

The second major Russian offensive opened on August 3...This time it was the German salient around Kharkov that suffered. Kharkov was an important centre of communications, and barred the way to the Ukraine and the Donetz industrial basin. Its defences had been prepared with more than usual thoroughness.--Closing the Ring, The Second World War, Volume 5, Winston Churchill (207)