Hundreds of people were evacuated from areas near the Russian border in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the regional governor said yesterday, a day after Moscow launched a surprise ground offensive.
“A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated,” Kharkiv OblastGovernor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.
There had been Russian artillery and mortar attacks on 30 settlements in the region in the past 24 hours, he said.
Photo: Reuters
Russian forces made small advances in the border area it was pushed back from nearly two years ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said a “fierce battle” was on in the area.
The Kharkiv region has been mostly under Ukrainian control since September 2022.
Russian forces had advanced 1km into Ukraine and were trying to “create a buffer zone” in the Kharkiv and neighboring Sumy regions to prevent attacks on Russian territory, a senior Ukrainian military source said.
Officials in Kyiv had for weeks said that Moscow might try to attack its northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with delays in Western aid and personnel shortages.
The Ukranian military said it had deployed more troops and Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were using artillery and drones to thwart the Russian advance.
“Reserve units have been deployed to strengthen the defense in this area of the front,” it said.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War on Friday said that Russia had made “tactically significant gains.”
However, the main aim of the operation was “drawing Ukrainian manpower and materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine,” it said.
The institute said it did not appear to be “a large-scale sweeping offensive operation to envelop, encircle and seize Kharkiv” — Ukraine’s second-biggest city.
Meanwhile, officials brought together dozens of inhabitants of Vovchansk and surrounding villages during breaks in the fighting and took them to an undisclosed location where they awaited buses to take them to safe locations.
“We are leaving because we are dying from the ‘Russian world,’” said resident Valerii Dubskyi, 60, referring to the Russian concept of extending Moscow’s influence beyond its borders.
“It can go to hell, together with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and their authorities. They are our enemies. They tested all types of weapons on us, except for the nuclear bomb,” Dubskyi said.
He said he had not eaten for 24 hours, and even fetching well water was impossible under an unending torrent of shelling.
“During the bombardments, you either rush to the basement or out of the basement,” he said. “There and back.”
Groups of evacuees sat on benches clutching handfuls of possessions, tightly packed bags alongside them on the ground.
Oleksii Kharkivsky, Vovchansk’s chief patrol police officer, said that Russian forces appeared intent on destroying the town.
“Within 24 hours, there were probably several hundred hits by artillery, mines and dozens of cluster bombs,” he said. “They are trying to get inside the area, but there are no enemy troops in the town.”
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