Kudos to UAF operational security, which allowed them to signal that they were about to attack Kherson, allow the RF time to move their better forces there, while they prepared for a major offensive in Kharkiv.

From what I've read, one of the slowdowns in the Kharkiv advance was waiting for RF forces who were in a panic and fleeing on foot to get to the next town, spread the panic and for those RF forces to flee as well.

I suspect a lot of the issue on the RF side was absence of officers to command - and having a command structure that made those officers' immediate presence necessary for force cohesion.