Hundreds of people have been displaced from their homes in areas near the border with Russia in Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, governor Oleh Sinekhubov said today, a day after Russian troops launched a surprise cross-border ground operation.
“A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated,” Sinekhubov wrote on social media, adding that Russia had fired artillery and mortar fire at 30 areas of the province in the past 24 hours.
Russian forces have made small advances in the border area, from which they were pushed almost two years ago. Most of Kharkiv province is under Ukrainian control as of September 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Friday that “heavy fighting” was raging along the entire front line.
A senior Ukrainian military source said Russian forces have advanced one kilometer into Ukraine and are trying to create a “neutral zone” in Kharkiv province and neighboring Sumy to stop attacks being launched from there against Russian territory.
Authorities in Kiev have warned for weeks that Moscow might try to use its advantage to attack the border regions of northeastern Ukraine as Ukraine faces delays in aid deliveries from the West and shortages of fighters.
The Ukrainian military announced that it had deployed more troops to Kharkiv province, where, according to Zelensky, artillery and drones had been positioned to counter the Russian attack.
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimated yesterday that Russia had achieved “significant tactical gains”, but the main objective of the operation is to “attract Ukrainian manpower and equipment from other critical areas of the front”.
ISW pointed out that it does not appear to be a “large-scale attack aimed at encircling, encircling and capturing Kharkiv”, the second largest city in Ukraine.
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