Selenskyj: Ukraine regains control over Kharkiv areas, air strikes continue

Ukrainian forces have taken “combat control” of the areas where Russian troops invaded in the northeastern Kharkiv region earlier this month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Meanwhile, two people were killed in an airstrike on Kharkiv, the region’s capital, on Saturday, according to local authorities.

Kharkiv is about 19 kilometers from the Russian border. Moscow’s troops have seized villages in the area in recent weeks as part of a large-scale advance, and analysts say they may be trying to get within artillery range of the city. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than 11,000 people from the region since the offensive began on May 10.

“Our soldiers have now succeeded in taking combat control of the border area into which the Russian occupiers have penetrated,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Friday evening.

Zelensky’s comments seemed to contradict those of Russian officials.

Viktor Vodolatskiy, a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Russian forces now control more than half of the town of Vovchansk, five kilometers across the border, Russian state news agency Tass reported on Friday.

Since the start of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, Vovchansk has been a hotbed of fighting. Vodolatskiy was also quoted as saying that after securing Vovchansk, Russian troops would attack the towns of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk in the neighboring Donetsk region.

Independent confirmation of the allegations was not immediately possible.

The Russian advance in Kharkiv is apparently a coordinated new offensive. It includes tests of Ukrainian defenses in the Donetsk region further south. There, according to the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday, Russian forces have taken the village of Archanhelske. Incursions into the northern regions of Sumy and Chernihiv are also planned.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin’s army was trying to create a “buffer zone” in the Kharkiv region to prevent Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

The Russian advance is shaping up to be Ukraine’s biggest test since Moscow’s large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. At several points along the roughly 990-kilometer-long front line that winds through eastern Ukraine from north to south, Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and outgunned.

In addition to the ground offensive along Ukraine’s northeastern border, Russia continues to bomb the Kharkiv region with missiles, guided aerial bombs and drones.

Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said two people were killed and 24 others injured on Saturday afternoon when an aerial bomb hit a large building materials store in the city of Kharkiv, sparking a huge fire. He said more than 200 people may have been inside the store. A second bomb hit the city’s central park, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Ukraine’s problems in contending with its far larger enemy have worsened in recent months, and the war appears to have reached a critical point.

Associated Press reports that Kullab reported from Kyiv and Elise Morton from London.