Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a televised message tonight that repelling the Russian offensive near the northeastern city of Kharkiv is the military’s “first priority” at the moment.
The Ukrainian president stressed that fighting continues today in seven border villages in Kharkiv province and described the situation in the southern Donetsk province as “particularly tense”.
“Our defense operations continue in the Kharkiv region, in the area of the villages of Stryletsa, Krasne, Morokhovets, Olyinikovo, Lukyanchi, Hatise and Pletenivka,” he stressed, saying that “for the past two days, our soldiers have been conducting counterattacks there, defending the Ukrainian terrain”.
“Also, the situation in Donetsk remains very tense, particularly in the direction of Pokrovsky,” he added.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced earlier today that Russian military forces captured five Ukrainian border villages north of Kharkiv.
The villages cited by Moscow were Stryletsa, Krasne, Pilne and Borysivka, located about 30 kilometers north of Kharkiv.
The Russian military said it killed and captured a large number of Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed their equipment in the offensive, which began on Thursday night. This account has not been confirmed by independent sources.
Ukrainian authorities said many residents of border areas were moved to other safe areas. Ukraine has long been expecting a Russian attack near Kharkiv.
On the Russian side, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said this evening that one woman was killed and 29 others were injured, including a child, by Ukrainian shelling.
“The city of Belgorod and the region of Belgorod were subjected to massive shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, without specifying when the shelling took place.
Yesterday, in Rovenki, in the Russian-held Ukrainian province of Luhansk, shelling caused an oil tank fire, killing at least three people according to Russian-appointed local authorities.
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