Russia is attacking northeastern Ukraine in a new ground offensive

Russia launched a surprise ground offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Friday, attacking its forces in a border area from which Moscow’s troops were pushed back nearly two years ago.

Civilians have been ordered to flee border areas as heavy fighting rages between Russian and Ukrainian forces struggling with ammunition and manpower shortages.

“Russia launched a new wave of counteroffensives in this area. Ukraine met them there with our troops, brigades and artillery… Now a fierce battle is underway in this area,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a briefing.

A senior Ukrainian military source said Russia had advanced one kilometer (0.6 miles) into Ukraine and was trying to “create a buffer zone” to prevent attacks on Russian territory.

If Russia’s advances are confirmed, it would be the Kremlin’s largest land operation in the region since sending thousands of troops across the border in February 2022.

Ukraine reported that it had repelled Russia’s incursion, but that “fighting of varying intensity” continued and that Russia had carried out air strikes on an area near the border.

The attack was launched around 5:00 a.m. (0200 GMT), with Russia trying to break through Ukraine’s lines under the protection of armored vehicles, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented, but Russian military bloggers reported active fighting in the region.

– “Massive shelling” –

A local official said there was “massive shelling” in Vovchansk, a town of about 3,000 people about five kilometers (three miles) from the Russian border, and that evacuations were underway there and in surrounding areas.

At least two people were killed in Russian shelling of the region on Friday, local governor Oleg Synegubov said.

“Enemy shelling with various types of weapons has increased in the Kharkiv region in the north since the last day,” he wrote on Telegram.

“In the Kharkiv region, evacuation routes have been developed since 2022, as well as a system for distributing humanitarian assistance and temporary relocation,” he said.

Vitaliy Ganchev, a Russian-appointed official for the Kharkiv region, confirmed that there was fighting near the border and urged civilians to seek shelter.

“There is fighting on several parts of the contact line, including in the border areas of the Kharkiv region,” he said on Telegram.

“In this context, I ask the residents of these areas to be careful and not to leave the shelters without urgent necessity,” he added.

Russia claimed to have captured at least two villages in the region this week, pressuring its advantage over armed and manned Ukrainian troops.

President Vladimir Putin warned in March that he was considering establishing a “sanitary zone” on Ukrainian territory next to Belgorod, a Russian region frequently targeted by Ukrainian fire.

At least two people were killed in a Ukrainian shelling of Russian border villages on Thursday, the governors of the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk said.

Pro-Ukrainian militias also claimed to have stormed the Russian border in a series of brazen raids earlier this year, embarrassing the Kremlin.

bur-ant-cad/jc/jm