Kharkiv is an important city in Ukraine and an important city in the Soviet Union. Even for the current USSR, it may be more important than Kiev.

After all, if Kyiv is captured, the troops on the front of the Soviet army still have a chance to retreat back and continue fighting.

But if Kharkov is captured, then the German army will fight all the way to Donetsk, and everything will be over.

In fact, Zhukov, who was retreating towards Kharkov, did not even want to lose the place Sumy.

Because Sumy was lost, then Kiev's back was handed over to the Germans - no, a huge encirclement could bury the only remaining field troops of the Soviet Union.

"The troops of Kyiv must be allowed to retreat...... If they don't move now, they won't be able to move if they regret it......" the chief of staff advised Zhukov.

Zhukov actually wants Kyiv and other front-line troops to take the initiative to retreat and maintain a more comfortable defensive formation.

In practice, however, it was not the same – first of all, Stalin was reluctant to give up the important cities in front of him.

Not to mention anything else, once the vicinity of Kyiv is occupied by the German army, a large number of grain-producing areas in Ukraine will also become areas controlled by the German army, which in itself will make the Soviet Union fall into passivity.

Rest, not counting the political influence, and the cost of retreating troops, etc.

From a purely military point of view, the long pain is better than the short pain, and Zhukov believes that retreat is the most suitable option for the current situation of the Soviet army.

However, from the perspective of overall advantages and disadvantages, the Soviet army that gave up Ukraine almost gave up victory.

Starting from Ukraine, the German army could easily rush into the Caucasus, destroy the Soviet Union's oil-producing areas, and put the Soviet army in a passive situation of lack of oil.

"Can you fight the Germans in the Sumy region? Buy some time for the troops behind? Zhukov still asked with some reluctance.

"From a tactical point of view, this arrangement is fine, but our current problem is that there are too many aspects to take into account." The chief of staff glanced at the political commissar and said with a helpless sigh.

He didn't dare to mention Stalin directly, nor did he dare to say anything like central intervention - so he could only complain vaguely, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.

It's just that Zhukov understood the people present, and the comrades of the political commissar also understood. The Soviets had to fight not only with the Germans, but also with the orders of their own people.

Zhukov's main forces did not have any problems fighting in the Sumy region, this is well known to everyone.

But what is the purpose of their battle, it is worth thinking: they are fighting here in order to buy time for the front-line combat troops in Kyiv and other regions to retreat.

But will they be able to buy time to retreat? No! Because of the retreat of a million-strong army head-on, Stalin basically would not have allowed it.

The final result was a bloody battle for Zhukov in Sumy, and as a result, the troops on the front were still dragging their feet and not doing anything - which is tantamount to saying that the battle in Sumy was in vain.

Zhukov was unwilling to waste his troops in such a useless way. So he could only take his troops and go to Kharkov to join Vatutin.

At this moment, only Vatutin's troops, as well as the troops in his hands, were the forces that stopped Guderian's Army Group B.

"The enemy can solve everything with tactics, but I can't ......" Zhukov felt that things in this world were really unfair.

What makes him helpless is that this world is so unfair, giving him almost unlimited troops at the same time, it also gives him infinite constraints.

"Get the troops up to speed! Give up Samui! We can't waste our forces here, let's go to Kharkov! Zhukov reluctantly gave the order to continue the retreat.

On this day, the Soviets abandoned Sumy and continued their retreat towards Kharkov. The Soviet army, which had held out in Kursk for half a month, was defeated and ceded out of the Kursk region and retreated all the way into Ukraine.

And the vanguard of Guderian's Army Group B, which was closely following the Soviet troops, appeared on the outskirts of Sumy a few hours later.

After entering Sumy, they found themselves in a different world, and the German soldiers with weapons could not believe their eyes.

Local Ukrainians in Sumy, holding flowers and waving flags of various colors, warmly welcomed the arriving Germans on both sides of the road.

The German vanguard, who had been prepared for a fierce street battle in Sumy and had to wait for several days to take the city, found out that their judgment was outrageously wrong.

Local Ukrainians even asked about joining the army, and many women held garlands and cheered wildly at the German armored vehicles.

Here the German soldiers were not invaders, but messengers of peace who delivered them. So after successfully taking Sumy, Guderian probably knew what he was going to do next.

Having captured Sumy, Guderian was in no hurry to move south along the roads and railways to attack Kharkov.

He turned his gun around and made a detour to the west, killing Kyiv! Army Group B took Romne a day later, on August 20!

Having informed Army Group D of his intentions to attack, Marshal Bock immediately launched a frontal assault and launched a surprise attack on Vinneço.

After capturing Vinneço, the Germans stormed Uman along the kilometer, despite the fact that they were alone in the depths.

And Army Group D under Bock killed Uman's colleagues, and Army Group B, under the command of Guderian, captured Lubne.

At this time, on the entire huge map of Ukraine, the strategic intentions of the German army finally appeared.

Army Group B formed an encirclement of Soviet forces around Kiev in the northwest. And the troops of Army Group D outflanked them in the southeast.

The two sides tacitly formed a huge encirclement, packing 700,000 Soviet troops into a huge pocket.

Although this small encirclement is a little worse than the plan of encircling the more than 2 million regular Soviet troops in the entire territory of Ukraine, it can be resolved quickly.

As long as the 700,000 Soviet troops in this encirclement are crushed, then on the west side of the Donetsk River, it will be impossible for the Soviet army to organize a new defensive line.

At this time, Zhukov, who hurriedly retreated to Kharkov, realized that the German army had abandoned the strategic plan of completely annihilating all Soviet troops in Ukraine, and began to attack the Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kyiv in a targeted manner!