| AP Photo/Andrii Marienko |
Ukrainian forces have secured “combat control” of areas where Russian troops entered the northeastern Kharkiv region earlier this month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, two people were killed Saturday in an aerial attack on the city of Kharkiv, which is the region’s capital, according to local officials.
Kharkiv is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Russian border. Moscow’s troops have in recent weeks captured villages in the area as part of a broad push, and analysts say they may be trying to get within artillery range of the city. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than 11,000 people from the region since the start of the offensive on May 10.
“Our soldiers have now managed to take combat control of the border area where the Russian occupiers entered,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday evening.
Zelenskyy’s comments appeared to be at odds with those made by Russian officials.
Viktor Vodolatskiy, a member of Russia‘s lower house of parliament, said Russian forces now controlled more than half of the town of Vovchansk, 3 miles (5 kilometers) inside the border, Russian state news agency Tass reported Friday.
Vovchansk has been a flashpoint for fighting since Russia launched the offensive in the Kharkiv region. Vodolatskiy was also quoted as saying that once Vovchansk was secured, Russian forces would target the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk in the neighboring Donetsk region.
Independent confirmation of the claims wasn’t immediately possible.
Russia’s Kharkiv push appears to be a coordinated new offensive that includes testing Ukrainian defenses in the Donetsk region further south — where Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces had taken over the village of Arkhanhelske — while also launching incursions in the northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions. --->READ MORE HERE
Russia has lost eight times as many soldiers as Ukraine since Moscow launched its latest offensive in the northeastern province of Kharkiv two weeks ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.
Zelensky said the mass casualties on the battlefield prove Russian President Vladimir Putin “has absolutely no regard for human life,” in an interview with Kazakh media outlet Vlast.
He put the number of Russian soldiers were killed in Kharkiv since May 10 between 2,000 and 3,000 .
“Their breakthrough in the direction of Kharkiv,” Zelensky said, resulted in “military casualties of one to eight – one Ukrainian to eight Russians,” he said, adding that Putin “doesn’t care at all.”
Separately, Zelensky said Ukranian forces had taken back areas Russian troops attempted to conquer over the past two weeks.
“Our soldiers have now managed to take combat control of the border area where the Russian occupiers entered,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday evening.
But he warned that the country’s second largest city, also named Kharkiv, was still vulnerable, a comment that was followed by another attack.
On Saturday, Russia launched a daylight attack against a construction supplies market in Kharkiv, killing and wounding several of the 200 people at the site at the time.
“All the emergency services are already on the site and providing assistance, rescuing people, and extinguishing the fire that has completely engulfed the building,” Zelensky posted to X. “If Ukraine had sufficient air defense systems and modern combat aircraft, Russian strikes like this one would have been impossible. And that is why we appeal to all leaders, to all states: we need a significant enhancement of air defense and sufficient capabilities to destroy Russian terrorists.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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