Ukraine strikes kill 4 as nearly 11,000 evacuate Kharkiv

Ukraine strikes kill 4 as nearly 11,000 evacuate Kharkiv | Daily Tribune

Russian strikes on the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv killed four people, the regional governor said Thursday, as nearly 11,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the northeastern region in the face of a surprise Russian ground attack.

Russian army struck at least 15 times, Governor Oleg Synegubov said in a post on Telegram.

Kharkiv, which is the second-largest city in Ukraine and lies just dozens of kilometers from the border with Russia, has been under persistent shelling since Moscow’s forces invaded in February 2022.

Separately, the head of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russian territory, said a 74-year-old man was killed by Russian shelling on the village of Mala Tokmachka.

Russian forces have in recent weeks made their biggest territorial gains in the war-battered east of the last 18 months as Ukraine waits for desperately needed American and European weapon supplies.

The advances in Kharkiv have forced nearly 11,000 people to flee their homes since Moscow launched its ground assault on 10 May, regional officials said Thursday.

Russian authorities meanwhile said that Ukrainian attacks on the border region of Belgorod and in the occupied Ukrainian region of Donetsk left two dead.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his army launched the offensive in Kharkiv to create a buffer zone that would protect Russian border villages from Ukrainian attacks.

Russia said Wednesday that its forces had retaken Klishchiivka, one of a handful of villages on the eastern front that Ukraine took control of in a lackluster counteroffensive last summer.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned the assault, which brought Russia its biggest territorial gains in 18 months, may be the first of several waves.

Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said in a post on Telegram that thousands fled their homes as Russian forces advanced toward border villages including Lyptsi and the city of Vovchansk.

“Fighting continues” in the area of Vovchansk, just five kilometers from the border, the General Staff said.

“Our defenders are putting up a decent fight back,” it added.

Moscow seized 278 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory between 9 and 15 May, according to Agence France-Presse calculations based on data from the Institute for the Study of War.