THOUSANDS of civilians have fled their homes in Kharkiv as Ukrainian troops fight “ferociously” against Russian invaders.
Kiev is courageously repelling attacks by Vladimir Putin’s troops after launching a new attack on the Ukrainian region on Friday, threatening to open a new front in the 27-month war.
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Ukraine’s military chief said on Sunday that his country’s forces faced a difficult situation in the fighting in the Kharkiv region, just hours after Moscow confirmed the capture of five villages.
Since then, Russia has claimed to have captured four more villages, although Ukraine’s leadership has not confirmed Moscow’s gains, while Kiev fights for control of the settlements.
“Defense Forces units are fighting fierce defensive battles, attempts by Russian invaders to break through our defenses have been stopped,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in the Telegram app.
“The situation is difficult, but the Ukrainian Defense Forces are doing everything to maintain defensive lines and positions and inflict damage on the enemy,” he added.
Ukraine is currently on the defensive against Russia, which has a significant advantage in manpower and ammunition.
Kiev says several months of delays by the US Congress in voting on a massive aid package have proved costly on the battlefield.
It now expects significant amounts of the recently approved assistance to arrive quickly to bolster the defense effort.
Intense fighting has forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, surrendering more land to Russian forces in less-defended settlements in the so-called “contested gray zone” along the Russian border.
Thousands of civilians have now fled Russia’s renewed ground offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has hit towns and villages with a hail of artillery and mortar shells, officials said on Sunday.
At least 4,000 civilians have fled the Kharkiv region since Friday, when Moscow forces launched the operation, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a statement on social media.
Heavy fighting took place on Sunday along the northeastern front line, where Russian forces attacked 27 settlements in the past 24 hours, he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced the new gains a day after saying that five villages had been taken in the region, in a part of Ukraine from which Russian troops were expelled almost two years ago.
The ministry said its forces “advanced deep into enemy defenses” and took villages such as Gatishche, Krasnoye, Morokhovets and Oleinikovo.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said it believed Moscow’s claims were accurate, based on geolocated images showing the location of Russian forces.
He described recent Russian gains as tactically significant.
But the Ukrainian army said it was succeeding in containing further Russian advances.
At an evacuation point near the front line in the Kharkiv region were groups of people who had been evacuated from the outskirts of the city of Vovchansk, most of them elderly and disoriented.
“We weren’t going to leave. Home is home,” said Lyuda Zelenskaya, 72, hugging a shivering cat named Zhora.
Liuba Konovalova, 70, said she experienced a “really terrifying” night before her evacuation.
Around them, volunteers helped evacuees reach some wooden benches where they checked in and received food before being evacuated to Kharkiv, the regional capital.
“In total, 4,073 people were evacuated,” Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.
Ukraine reported several civilians killed in the offensive.
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Synegubov said the latest victim, a 63-year-old man, was killed by artillery fire in the village of Glyboke.
Oleksiy Kharkivsky, a senior Vovchansk police officer who helps coordinate evacuations, said “several people” were killed in shelling on Saturday and one person was found dead in the rubble overnight.
“The city is constantly under attack,” he said.
“Everything in the city is being destroyed… You hear constant explosions, artillery, mortars. The enemy is hitting the city with everything they have,” he said.
Kharkivsky estimated that around 1,500 people have been evacuated or fled Vovchansk since Friday and there have been 32 drone attacks on the city in the past 24 hours.
He said evacuation teams had been attacked “many times.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks on border villages.
“Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task,” he said.
Troops must “return the initiative to Ukraine,” the president insisted, again urging allies to speed up arms deliveries.
Ukrainian authorities have warned for weeks that Moscow could try to attack its northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with delays in Western aid and labor shortages.
Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the usual Russian tactics, launching a disproportionate amount of fire and infantry attacks to exhaust its troops and firepower.
This comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March on energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts predicted was a concerted effort by Moscow to shape conditions for an offensive.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
