Russia tries to breach Kharkiv defences
Ukraine sending more troops to second city after intense shelling
Ukraine rushed reinforcements to its north-eastern Kharkiv region yesterday to hold off a Russian attempt to breach local defences, authorities said, signalling a tactical switch in the war by Moscow that Ukrainian officials had been expecting for weeks.
Intense night-time shelling targeted Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv region and less than 5km from the Russian border, regionalgovernorOlehSyniehubovsaid.
The barrage killed at least one civilian and wounded five others, prompting authorities to begin evacuating about 3,000 people.
Then, around dawn, Russian infantry tried to penetrate Ukrainian defences near Vovchansk, the Ukrainian defence ministry said, adding that it had deployed reserve units to fend off the attack.
Russian military bloggers said it could mark the start of a Russian attempt to carve out a “buffer zone” that Vladimir Putin vowed to create earlier this year to halt frequent Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions.
Ukraine previously said it was aware that Russia was assembling thousands of troops along the north-eastern border, close to the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
Although Russia’s most recent ground offensive had been focused on parts of eastern Ukraine farther south, Ukrainian intelligence officials said they had expected an attack in the north-east, too.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said its military had anticipated this latest attack and had calibrated its response. “Now there is a fierce battle in this direction,” he said.
Though Russia is unlikely to capture Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, it could compel Ukraine to send more troops to the region, leaving other areas of the country more vulnerable.
Forcing Ukrainian authorities to evacuate civilians will also likely create disruption and divert resources.
The Russian military could also try to cut key supply routes in the area and try to blockade Kharkiv, which is home to roughly 1.1 million people and is only about 30km south of the border. The Kremlin’s forces are seeking to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of ammunition and manpower after the flow of Western military aid to Kyiv tapered off in recent months and before promised new support arrives.
The Ukrainian army is on the defensive along the roughly 1,000km front line and is scrambling to build fortified defensive lines before what officials believe will be a bigger Russian offensive. Ukraine’s forces are outnumbered in infantry, armour and ammunition.
In the opening days of the war, Russia made a botched attempt to quickly storm Kharkiv but retreated from its outskirts a month later. Seven months after that, in the autumn of 2022, Ukraine’s army pushed the Kremlin’s forces out of Kharkiv. The bold counterattack helped persuade Western countries that Ukraine could defeat Russia.
In Vovchansk, local officials said the Russian assault had damaged numerous buildings. “The entire town is under massive shelling now. It is not safe to stay here,” Vovchansk administration head Tamaz Hambarishvili said.
Ukraine said fighting against Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups had continued into the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said a Ukrainian long-range drone struck an oil refinery inside Russia yesterday.
The drone hit a refinery near the city of Kaluga, south-west of Moscow, setting four oil storage tanks ablaze, according to Vladislav Shapsha, the regional governor. He said there were no casualties.
The Russian defence ministry said air defences downed seven Ukrainian drones early yesterday in the Moscow, Bryansk and Belgorod regions.
Yesterday’s attack came a day after one on a petrochemical facility in what appears to have been Ukraine’s deepest strike into Russia. A senior official in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, about 1,300km from the border, said Thursday’s drone strike in the city of Salavat caused a fire at the petrochemical facility.
The Russian emergencies ministry said a pumping station building on refinery land was damaged, but there was no fire. Ukrainian military intelligence refused to comment.