All of the border “zones” of the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv are “under Russian” fire “almost 24 hours a day,” the governor of this region of eastern Ukraine declared this Sunday, two days later the launch of an offensive from Moscow. “All areas of the northern border are under enemy fire almost 24 hours a day. The situation is difficult,” Oleg Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s second city, said on social media .
The Russian Ministry of Defense then reported the capture of four additional localities very close to the border – Gatishche, Krasnoye, Morokhovets and Oleïnikovo – in this region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that “fierce fighting” was taking place on parts of the border in the Kharkiv region, where thousands of people have been displaced following a Russian offensive. “Defensive battles and fierce fighting continue on a large part of our border,” Zelensky said. “The idea behind the attacks in the Kharkiv region is to stretch our forces and undermine the morale” of the Ukrainian army.
The main information to remember:
- Two days after Moscow launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region, Russia claimed the capture of four additional localities very close to the border
- More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from these border areas of Kharkiv
- Four people found dead in the rubble of a building hit by a Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Belgorod
More than 4,000 people evacuated
Earlier in the day, he announced that more than 4,000 people had been evacuated from these border areas of Kharkiv. Oleg Synegubov also indicated that a 63-year-old man was killed on Sunday by artillery fire in the village of Glyboke and that a 38-year-old man was injured in Vovchansk, a border town with some 3,000 inhabitants. before the current offensive. AFP was able to see people evacuated near Vovchansk on Sunday, most of them elderly and disoriented.
“We weren’t ready to leave. Home is home,” says Lyouda Zelenskaya, 72, with her cat Zhora in her arms. Like her, Liouba Konovalova, 70, remembers “the terrifying night” which preceded their evacuation. Both lived together after their children left. Around them, volunteers assist elderly evacuees sitting on benches to register and receive food before leaving for Kharkiv.
According to Oleksiï Kharkivsky, a Vovchansk police officer mobilized for these evacuations, “several people” died in bombings on Saturday and the body of another was discovered under rubble during the night. “The city is constantly under fire,” he says. “Artillery, mortars, the enemies attack with everything they have.” According to him, some 1,500 people have been evacuated since Friday from this city hit by 32 drone attacks in the last 24 hours. Governor Synegubov estimated the number of civilians still present in Vovchansk at 500.
“Significantly degraded” situation
Volodymyr Tymochko, police chief of the Kharkiv region, said Vovchansk was under attack from three sides and Russian troops were on its outskirts. “Despite active fighting, police continue to evacuate people who currently live 300 or 500 meters from the contact line,” he told AFP at the evacuation point. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian forces Oleksandr Syrsky assured for his part that “attempts to break through our defenses have been stopped”.
But he admitted that the situation in the Kharkiv region had “significantly deteriorated” and remained “complicated”. Ukrainian forces are “doing everything they can to maintain their defense lines and inflict damage on the enemy,” he said. As for the country’s second city itself, “despite all the events taking place in the region, Kharkiv is calm, we do not see people leaving”, declared its mayor, Igor Terekhov, quoted by the municipal Council.
Four killed in Ukrainian counterattack
President Volodymyr Zelensky assured, in a speech on Saturday evening, that Ukrainian counterattacks were underway. “Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task,” he said. He added that it was necessary to “return the initiative to Ukraine” and urged kyiv’s allies to speed up arms deliveries. Authorities in kyiv have warned for weeks that Moscow could try to attack northeastern border regions, as Ukraine faces delays in Western aid and a shortage of soldiers.
This Sunday, four people were found dead in the rubble of a building hit by a Ukrainian strike on the Russian town of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. “Two other bodies were pulled out of the rubble in Belgorod,” the ministry said on social media, after reporting two bodies in the same place.