(Kharkiv) Ukraine has said it is containing the Russian military advance in the north-east of the country where the situation remains “extremely difficult” according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, with Moscow leading an offensive there which has enabled it to reap its most important territorial gains since the end of 2022.
According to a senior NATO military official, however, Russian forces “do not have the necessary forces to achieve a strategic breakthrough”.
“They have neither the skills nor the capacity to do it,” said the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, American General Christopher Cavoli, on Thursday evening.
Ukrainian authorities have accused the Russian army of having executed at least one Ukrainian civilian and using around forty others as “human shields” in Vovchansk, a town in the Kharkiv region (north-east) and target of an assault by Russian troops who conquered, according to AFP estimates, nearly 260 km2 In a week.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT’S PRESS SERVICE, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) rewarding a soldier during his visit to Kharkiv, May 16, 2024.
On the Russian side, a mother and her four-year-old child were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the village of Oktyabrsky, in the Russian border region of Belgorod, announced Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, specifying that another drone had targeted a gas station near the village of Bessonovka.
Volodymyr Zelensky went to Kharkiv, the regional capital and second city in the country, on Thursday for a meeting of his military cabinet.
“To date, the situation […] is generally under control, our soldiers are inflicting significant losses on the occupier,” declared Mr. Zelensky.
“But the area remains extremely difficult, which is why we are strengthening our units,” he added.
“No significant change”
There has been “no significant change in the situation” on the front lines, including in Vovchansk, although some troops had to “regroup” in the Pokrovsky region, near Donetsk, following “ intense fire and assaults,” according to the Ukrainian army.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian army reported “ten clashes on the Kharkiv axis”. “Our soldiers repelled eight attacks in the areas of Lyptsi, Staritsa and Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region,” he said, adding that the situation in Vovchansk is under control.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko accused Russia of carrying out arbitrary detentions of civilians and at least one summary execution in Vovchansk, a town of 18,000 inhabitants before the war.
Later in the day, police in the region clarified the accusations, saying the Russian army was detaining 35 to 40 civilians, using them as “human shields” to protect a military headquarters.
An elderly resident who tried to escape on foot into territory controlled by Ukraine was shot in the head, according to the same source.
AFP is unable to confirm these accusations from an independent source. Russia did not immediately react.
Russian forces have been accused of numerous documented abuses in Ukraine, in particular the massacre of hundreds of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv that they occupied at the start of their invasion in 2022.
Russia launched a new land offensive against the Kharkiv region on May 10, penetrating from the north into two border sectors, those of Vovtchansk and Lukiantsi, localities located respectively around fifty and around thirty kilometers from the city of Kharkiv.
Russia launched a new land offensive against the Kharkiv region on May 10, penetrating from the north into two border sectors, those of Vovtchansk and Lukiantsi, localities located respectively around fifty and around thirty kilometers from the city of Kharkiv.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” »
The head of the military administration of Vovchansk, Tamaz Gambarashvili, was injured on Thursday during a strike on a nearby village, the regional governor said. Five other men were injured, including two doctors.
Between May 9 and 15, the Russians conquered 257 km2 in the Kharkiv region alone, according to an AFP analysis on Thursday based on data provided by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
According to the emergency services, 8,800 people have been evacuated in recent days. In the city of Kharkiv, people evacuated from Vovchansk continue to arrive at a humanitarian center.
Among them, Nadia Borodina, 85 years old, traditional red scarf on her head, her dog on a leash and her cat in a plastic bag.
She waited three days to be evacuated, with little food and no means of communication.
“The soldiers came and shouted ‘Let’s go, let’s go!’ and we left in five minutes,” the old lady told AFP. “I lived through the Second World War, but today it’s even scarier! “.
PHOTO FINBARR O’REILLY, THE NEW YORK TIMES
According to regional governor Oleg Synegoubov, 8,779 people have been evacuated in recent days in the Kharkiv region.
The Russian assault exploits the weakening of Ukrainian forces in recent months, Kyiv lacking men, but also weapons and ammunition due to delays in Western military aid.
In the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, occupied by Russian forces since 2014, four women were also killed Thursday evening by Ukrainian strikes near a bus stop, pro-Russian authorities announced.