Hundreds of people were evacuated from areas of Kharkiv region that are located near the border with Russia, the governor of the Ukrainian region said Oleg Sinegubov a day after Russian forces launched a ground offensive against the region, France Press reported, BTA reported.
"A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated," he wrote on social networks, noting that over the past 24 hours, Russia has carried out artillery and mortar fire on 30 settlements in the northeastern Ukrainian region. Russian forces have not made much progress in the border area from which they were pushed almost two years ago.
As of September 2022, most of Kharkiv Oblast is under the control of Kyiv. Last night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported "intense fighting" along the entire front line, AFP recalls. A senior Ukrainian military source said Russian forces had advanced a kilometer into Ukraine and were trying to "create a buffer zone" in Kharkiv and the neighboring Sumy region to prevent attacks on the territory of Russia.
Authorities in Kiev have warned for weeks that Moscow could try to attack Ukraine's northeastern regions that border Russia, taking advantage of a slowdown in Western aid to Ukraine and a shortage of people from which the Ukrainian forces are suffering, notes AFP.
The Ukrainian army said it had deployed more troops to the region, where Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were using artillery and drones to counter the Russian advance. The US Institute for the Study of War said yesterday that Russia had achieved "significant tactical successes" but that the main objective of the operation was "to divert Ukrainian manpower and equipment from other critical frontline areas". According to the Institute, this does not appear to be a "large-scale offensive operation aimed at encircling, besieging and capturing Kharkiv," which is Ukraine's second largest city.