(Updates with statements from Zelensky and assessment in Belgorod)
KYIV/MOSCOW, May 12 (Reuters) –
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Sunday that fighting was still ongoing in several villages in the Kharkiv region (north-east) as pressure from Russian forces increased.
The Ukrainian president also reported fierce fighting in several neighborhoods in the Donetsk region (southeast), during a speech.
Volodimir Zelensky said “defensive battles” were taking place along Russia’s border with Ukraine in Kharkiv, where Russian forces launched a new offensive on Friday.
“Villages have gone from a ‘gray zone’ to a ‘zone of hostilities’,” he said. “The occupier is trying to gain ground in certain (villages).”
Around thirty armed confrontations have taken place in the last 24 in the Pokrovsk sector, northwest of the Russian-held town of Avdiivka, added the Ukrainian president.
Fighting also took place in the Krupiansk, Lyman and Kramatorsk sectors, he added.
A Ukrainian military leader earlier said his country’s forces were facing a difficult situation in the Kharkiv region, where fighting continued.
Russia launched a new offensive from its territory against the Kharkiv region in northern Ukraine on Friday, threatening to open a new front in this 27-month-old war.
For their part, Russian forces said a Ukrainian missile attack on the town of Belgorod, Russia, left at least nine dead and 20 injured. A building of at least ten stories collapsed.
(Reporting Max Hunder, Ron Popeski and Reuters office; French version Elizabeth Pineau and Zhifan Liu)
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