Russia launched a ground offensive in the Kharkiv region, where intense fighting is underway

The Russian army attempted to break through Ukrainian defense lines using armored vehicles, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, in a border sector of the Russian region of Belgorod.

Russia launched a ground offensive in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine and attempted to “break through the lines of defense”announced the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on Friday May 10.

This area had not been the target of such attacks since the withdrawal of Kremlin troops from almost the entire Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022, in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. While the scale of this new Russian operation is not yet clear, Ukraine has feared an attack in the region for weeks.

“Over the past day, the enemy carried out airstrikes in the Vovchansk sector”bordering the Russian region of Belgorod, with guided aerial bombs, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. “Around 5 a.m., the enemy tried to break through our defense lines using armored vehicles”, added this same source, without specifying the exact location of this attack. The ministry assured that these attacks had been “repulsed” but only “fights of various intensities” continued and that reserve units had been deployed to “strengthen the defense” of the area.

A “fierce battle” is underway

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a “fierce battle” is still in progress. “Russia has launched a new wave of counter-offensive actions in this direction”he said in the middle of the day during a press conference, while ensuring that his staff “knew it” and had “responded to the enemy with fire”.

The local governor, Oleg Synegubov, maintained that “all offensive actions” had been pushed back and there was no “no loss of territory”. He nevertheless affirmed, during an interview broadcast on national television, that “active combat” took place at “1 or 2 kilometers” from the Russian border. One civilian was killed and five others injured in Vovchansk during strikes during the morning, he said earlier on Telegram, adding that another civilian was killed in a strike in the northern town of Cherkaski Tychky. from Kharkiv.

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The region, whose capital is Kharkiv, the country’s second city, remains a major objective for the Kremlin. Moscow’s forces “sunk a kilometer into Ukrainian territory” and try to move forward until “ten kilometers”, said a senior source in the Ukrainian military command. Russia seeks to create a “buffer” to prevent Ukraine from striking the Russian region of Belgorod, which is very regularly targeted, she added.