KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops still control about 60% of the border town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region and are fighting house to house to defend it from Russian attacks, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.
The capture of Vovchansk, located about 5 kilometers from the Russian border, would be Moscow’s most important gain since Russia launched a new offensive in the north of the Kharkiv region in early May.
“The enemy continues to try, especially inside Vovchansk, to push the Ukrainian armed forces out of the city,” Deputy Governor of the Kharkiv region Roman Semenoukha told state television on Monday.
“About 60% of the city is controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces, which means that the attacks do not stop,” he added.
According to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov, the front line now runs along the Vovcha River, which runs through the city.
“Our soldiers are trying to defend the city house by house, street by street,” he said, adding that the Russian plan to quickly seize the north of the region had failed.
Vovchansk’s police chief said last week that Russian forces had taken up positions in the city and called the situation “extremely difficult.”
The Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, with assaults in the areas of Vovchansk and Lyptsi, forced Ukraine to send reinforcements, extending its troops along a front line more than 1,000 km to the east and south.
Ukraine’s General Staff earlier said its forces repelled Russian attacks near the border village of Starytsia.
According to Roman Semenoukha, local authorities have evacuated around 10,500 people from border areas since the Russian assault on the region on May 10.
(Reporting Anastasiia Malenko and Yuliia Dysa, French version Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.