Russian army pushed out of Kharkiv in blow to Putin

Ukraine claims big success around key city as civilians escape Mariupol steelworks on eve of Victory Day event

UKRAINIAN forces have pushed back the Russian army, regaining control of a string of villages in the east and embarrassing the Kremlin on the eve of its Victory Day parades.

Reports said that Ukrainian forces had captured several hamlets to the north and east of Kharkiv, the secondbiggest city and a key initial objective for Russia. Invading forces were pushed so far back they are now unable to strike Kharkiv with artillery.

The city lies 13 miles from the Russian border and has seen some of the fiercest fighting since the invasion started on Feb 24.

Much of Kharkiv – famed for its university, established in 1804 – now lies in ruins and, although analysts said that the Russian army had been pushed out of artillery range, a missile yesterday destroyed a museum dedicated to Hryhoriy Skovoroda, an 18th-century Ukrainian-Cossack philosopher.

Photos showed the smashed roof of the museum. One man was injured in the strike.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said last night that all women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from a Mariupol steel mill, long besieged by Russian forces.

Early in the day, around 50 civilians were freed in an operation that Ukraine admitted led to three of its soldiers being killed.

From inside the steelworks, a Ukrainian soldier told The Sunday Telegraph that they would “fight no matter what”.

“Russian invaders continue to storm Azovstal, but there was a safe evacuation of civilians,” said 22-year-old Vladislav in an interview through a social media channel.

It is reported that about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers remain trapped, living in squalid conditions.

Mariupol has endured the most destructive bombardment of the war and the steelworks is the final part of the city yet to be captured.

A few miles away, labourers painted war-scarred buildings, hung flags and repaired windows ahead of a Kremlinorganised Victory Day parade planned to mark Russia’s capture of the city.

In the Black Sea, Ukraine claimed another military success three weeks after sinking the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Footage was released of what was said to be a drone attack on a Russian warship at Snake Island. In the aerial footage, military personnel could be seen moving around a Serna-class landing craft, designed for rapid amphibious operations, before an explosion.

Other videos also showed attacks on a building and a Bayraktar drone strike against a Russian anti-aircraft system being delivered to the island.

“Enemy units remaining on Snake Island are still without air cover and will be burnt out like cockroaches or locusts,” said Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser.

The Russian defence ministry has not confirmed the attack.

Elsewhere, there were reports of continued fighting and shelling in the Donbas region focused on what has been described as a “cauldron” between the town of Izyum and the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Izyum, 77 miles from Kharkiv, is considered vital to Russian success in the region as it would provide a launchpad to encircle Ukrainian forces. Analysts said that although Russia had made progress around Severodonetsk – the easternmost city still under Ukrainian control – its soldiers have been pushed back around Izyum. “The city is almost surrounded,” a Ukrainian spokesman said. “They are trying to storm it through nearby villages.” He said 15,000 civilians, from the city’s pre-war population of 100,000, were trapped.

‘Enemy units remaining on Snake Island will be burnt out like cockroaches or locusts’