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.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS