Ukraine announces start of Russian offensive in Kharkiv region

Russian troops went on the offensive towards Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv in the early hours of Friday, according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.

Russian troops first dropped aerial bombs in the area of Vovchansk, a town in the Kharkiv region, and then tried to break through the defence line in armoured vehicles, the ministry wrote, adding that Ukraine had successfully repelled the attack.

Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said that the Ukrainian troops did not “lose a single metre”.

Still, Syniehubov reminded residents in Vovchansk and Lyptsi, a village in the Kharkiv region, that they could be required to evacuate in order to “protect themselves and their loved ones”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that there was active fighting in the Kharkiv region but said that the Ukrainian military command had known about it beforehand.

The Russian Defence Ministry announced Friday that it had captured two settlements in the Kharkiv region.

Despite Syniehubov’s claim that the Ukrainian army has lost no ground, a senior member of the Ukrainian military told Reuters that the Russian army had advanced one kilometre inside the Ukrainian border near Vovchansk. The source said that the Russian troops were seeking to push back the defence line by 10 kilometres to create a buffer zone, but that Kyiv’s troops were attempting to hold them back.