The head of Ukraine’s military has admitted that the situation in north-east has “significantly worsened” after Russia launched a major new assault that could result in the capture of the country’s second city.
On the same day, Russia condemned a massive missile strike against an apartment block in the city of Belgorod near the border, which it blamed on Ukraine.
Russia smashed across the border into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a “new wave of counteroffensive actions”.
Russia said on Sunday that it had seized four more villages – Hatyshche, Krasne, Morokhovets, Oliinykove – in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia’s Belgorod region, after claiming to have seized five more on Saturday.
The assault threatens to open a second front in the 27-month war, with Ukraine on the defensive in the south and east, and could strech Ukrainian troops across two front lines at a crucial moment.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine‘s Armed Forces, said in an update: “This week, the situation in Kharkiv Oblast [region] has significantly worsened. Currently, there are ongoing battles in the border areas along the state border with the Russian Federation. The situation is difficult, but the Defence Forces of Ukraine are doing everything to hold defensive lines and positions [and] inflict damage on the enemy.”
He said the situation at the front remained “tense” but that Ukrainian troops had repelled Russian assaults.
“Our intelligence, artillery, units of unmanned systems are working. We know the enemy’s plans and react flexibly to all his actions. To strengthen the defence, all necessary measures are taken and decisions are made quickly, including personnel decisions.”
Colonel Syrskyi added that fierce battles continued in the Kupyansk, Siversk, Lymansk, Pokrovsky directions, and that “the situation is changing very dynamically”.
Nazar Voloshyn, a military spokesman, said on Saturday: “The enemy is conducting their actions on two fronts… they are trying to widen the front,” and that the main thrusts of Russia’s attack were aimed at the towns of Vovchansk and Lyptsi, the latter of which is only about 12 miles from Kharkiv.
The White House has warned that Russian forces may be preparing to mount a full-scale assault against Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, after its assaults on smaller settlements near the border.
“You’re not going to do that if you’re not also thinking about some other larger assault directly on the city,” the National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, said on Friday.
The fresh assault comes soon after the US passed a $61bn aid bill for Ukraine after Republican lawmakers held it up in Congress for months. Although air defence systems and long-range missiles were included as part of that package, much of the weaponry is likely to take weeks to reach Ukraine’s front lines.
President Zelensky warned on Friday that Russia could be preparing a large-scale counteroffensive within the next few months.
There are also suggestions that Russia could be trying to establish a buffer zone following numerous Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s territory near the border.
In March the Kremlin said the only way to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks was to create a buffer zone, after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, raised the possibility of setting up such a zone.
On Sunday, the Russian city of Belgorod, about 20 miles from the border with Ukraine, was hit by a missile attack in which at least 17 people were killed when a section of an apartment block collapsed, according to Russian officials and media.
Ukraine launched what Russian officials said was a massive missile attack with Tochka ballistic missiles and Adler and RM-70 Vampire (MLRS) multiple launch rocket systems.
Kyiv has not commented on the accusations.
Russia’s defence ministry called it a “a terrorist attack on residential areas”. “Fragments of one of the downed Tochka-U missiles damaged an apartment building in the city of Belgorod,” the ministry said.
Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been killed and 17 injured, including two children. Others were still trapped under the rubble.
