MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian forces are preparing to try to take a village called Lyptsi, located about 30 kilometers north of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to a Russian-based official cited by the news agency. Russian state news RIA.
Russia last week opened a new front in the Ukraine war, rapidly advancing across the border into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region with small groups of highly mobile units, a move that forced Ukraine to send in troops from other areas. .
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy postponed all his foreign trips as Ukraine’s battlefield situation continued to deteriorate on Wednesday and Kiev said fighting was intense in the northeastern border town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region. .
“The most important city, which is now on the verge of complete liberation, is undoubtedly Volchansk,” Vitaly Ganchev, a Russian-installed official in Ukraine, told Russian state television, RIA reported.
He said Russian troops were already on the outskirts of the village of Lyptsi, on one of the main road routes to Kharkiv.
“The next one is the Lyptsi settlement – our guys are already on the outskirts. Work begins to free him, aviation and artillery work constantly, they don’t stop,” said Ganchev.
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that its defensive moves had forced Russian troops to reduce the pace of the offensive in the northern Kharkiv region.
(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Andrew Osborn)
