The town of Vovchansk is the next goal of the Kremlin troops. Moscow accuses: Western weapons used to hit Belgorod
By our correspondent
KIEV – They arrive in Hatyshche, and they make a video rider in front of the entrance sign. “We are Russian – say three soldiers – and we are here”. On the map, the village is only an imperceptible speck on the border of Russia. But for Ukrainians it is a stain on honor, the oriental breach that was feared. From here, the siege can begin True to the town of Vovchansk.
And then, who knows, you can march Kharkiv which is just 15 km. The infantry, tanks, heavy artillery are placed. The piano Russian It is already ready, the attack will be in three directions. “It is the same tactic that they used on Bakhmut and Adviidvka,” provides Volodymyr Tymoshko, Kharkiv police chief: «First they will erase Vovchaansk from the face of the earth. Then, they will try to advance ».
To where? From Saturday, All 600 km of the war front are under stress: Only yesterday, the Russian army pulled on 27 villages, hired 155 clashes, launched 133 between rockets and missiles, 118 air attacks. “The first line is entirely busy H24,” says the governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syneguubov, and “the enemy is again trying to break through north of our region”.
A very clear strategy: You want to stretch your front up to a thousand km. Why The Russians know well that Ukraine suffers from the lack of men, even more than weapons. And that the difficulties increase, when they have forced themselves to preside over more and more trenches and to thin the troops. “The situation has significantly worsened,” admits the head of the Ukrainian forces, Oleksandr Sypsky: “We had to withdraw from some positions”. “It is a very delicate moment – comments David Cameron, English foreign minister -, and it is sad that our weapons have been unlocked so late”.
Some of these, says Moscow, to truth is already used and the catalog would be this: the old Soviet manufacturing Tochka-Us, together with Czech systems PM-70 Vampire, to the Vilkha MLPS, to French self-propelled Caesar … “They struck us with weapons provided by NATO”, denounces the Kremlin, when Fragments of a missile missile on a ten -storey building in Belgorod45 km from Kharkiv: about ten dead, about thirty injured, the blackout throughout the area and Putin who in person calls the mayor of the city, before his spokesman reports the “barbaric attack”.
As it happened every time Belgorod has struck, Russia will respond. Meanwhile, freezing the possible exchange of 27 prisoners, all doctors, which the Vatican was mediating For a month and that Pope Francis yesterday has relaunched, saying “ready to deal”. So, accelerating the offensive, probably, and trying to conquer Vovchansk. “On the outskirts of the town – explains the same Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky – the situation is extremely difficult. We are constantly under fire and our soldiers counterattack to help the inhabitants ».
From Vovchansk 4 thousand have already run away. And the exodus does not stop. Many elderly people live a few hundred meters from the Russian troops, you have to do it soon. In a direct Tiktok, you can see a peasant loaded on a police SUV: He sits behind, he worsens the flowery scarf and grateful puts a hand on the officer’s shoulder. He begins to recite: “If I die, I Interri/ On the high hill/ among the steppes of my/ beautiful Ukrainian …”. It is “Testament”, the most famous poetry of Taras Shevchenko, Kiev’s Manzoni. The policeman smiles, and would recite with her.
