The Russian army announced on Friday that it had sent reinforcements to the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, in response to an apparently successful breakthrough by kyiv forces in this border area of Russia.
kyiv claimed on Thursday to have regained some 1,000 km2 in this region of North-East Ukraine in recent days, in particular the city of Balakliïa, as well as about twenty localities. “It’s difficult, but we are making progress,” Ukrainian army commander-in-chief Valery Zalouzhny said on Telegram.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from Brussels that Moscow’s deployment of reinforcements shows that Russia is paying “a huge price”.
The Russian Defense Ministry, which did not comment on the subject, nevertheless announced to Russian news agencies the deployment of reinforcements in this direction, broadcasting a video showing armored vehicles, howitzers and trucks driving in large numbers on roads not geolocated. It did not issue a statement detailing or commenting on these deployments.
He did not publish a press release to detail or comment on these deployments, contenting himself with listing, as he does every day, the heavy losses that the Russian army would have inflicted on the Ukrainians.
Russian television showed images of the Russian redeployment to Kharkiv, reporting fierce fighting.
As a sign of the Ukrainian advance, the pro-Russian authorities of the occupied territories in the region announced on Friday that they would evacuate the inhabitants to other areas under Moscow control or to Russia.
“We have been trying to concentrate all our efforts on evacuating the local population for three or four days, until the situation stabilizes,” Maxim Gubin, an official in the Kupiansk district, told Russian television.
fierce fights
A senior official of the occupation administration set up by Moscow in the areas controlled by the Russian army, Vitali Gantchev, said on Friday on the Russian television channel Rossiya 24 that “fierce fighting” was underway around the town of Balakliya, which kyiv said on Thursday it had recaptured.
“We no longer control Balakliïa. Attempts to dislodge Ukrainian forces are underway, but the fighting there is fierce and our troops are held up on the outskirts” of the town, he said.
According to him, heavy fighting is also taking place near the town of Shevchenkové, still in the Kharkiv region. “There too, the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to break through the defenses. Reserves from Russia have been sent there, our troops are fighting back,” said Vitali Gantchev.
The road from Kharkiv towards the southeast, towards Balakliïa, was open to traffic on Friday morning, noted an AFP team, an area that the Ukrainian army seems to have reconquered during fighting in recent days.
Many civilian cars were circulating, as well as military vehicles. Queues were also visible at several checkpoints.
Kharkiv, capital of the region of the same name and second city of Ukraine, is located in the northeast of the country, just on the border with Russia, and resists since the beginning of the invasion of February 24 Russian efforts to conquer her.
In addition to the breakthrough in this region, kyiv also claimed Thursday a series of successes in the South and East, claiming to have taken over territories and many localities.
If consolidated, these recent Ukrainian gains, together with those claimed in the south and east, are the most significant for Ukraine since the withdrawal of Russian troops from around kyiv in late March.
In the Donbass, a mining basin in eastern Ukraine where the heaviest fighting of the war has taken place in recent months, kyiv said on Thursday it had advanced two to three kilometers near Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and recaptured the village of Ozerne.
NATO unit
45 km away, in Bakhmout, 8 civilians were killed Thursday and 17 others injured in Russian strikes, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“Twenty houses, six buildings, four shops, the House of Culture and the administrative center of the city were damaged” in these Russian strikes, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Friday, adding that the market had been “under the fire” from the Russian artillery.
Bakhmout, which had 70,000 inhabitants before the start of the conflict in late February, has no water or electricity for the fourth consecutive day, according to Mr. Kyrylenko.
Traveling to Prague, Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, hailed Ukraine’s recent successes, noting that Western weaponry, such as US HIMARS, could be employed to “change the dynamics on the battlefield “.
“We are seeing success in Kherson (south) now, success in Kharkiv, and so it’s all very, very encouraging,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Brussels for a meeting with NATO, where he intends to insist on the “unity” of the members of the organization to “ensure that our Alliance is as strong as possible to deter Russia from any further aggression”.