Russia intensifies attacks on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region
Al Jazeera
Kyiv says Russian forces having ‘tactical success’ in assault on northeastern region on shared border.
Russia has widened its ground assault in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, attacking new areas to try to expand the front and stretch Ukraine’s forces, the region’s governor says.
“The enemy is trying to deliberately stretch it [the front line], attacking in small groups but in new directions, so to speak,” Governor Oleh Syniehubov said in televised comments on Monday.
“The situation is difficult,” he said, adding that about 5,700 people have been evacuated from in and around Vovchansk as he urged the town’s remaining residents, about 300 people, to leave.
On Friday, Moscow’s troops entered Ukraine near Kharkiv city, opening a northeastern front in a war that has for almost two years been largely fought in the east and south. The advance could draw some of Kyiv’s depleted forces away from the east, where Russia has been slowly advancing.
A day after the Russian offensive began, Ukraine appointed Brigadier General Mykhailo Drapatyi to take command of the Kharkiv front, media outlet RBC-Ukraine reported. He led the operations in 2022 that took back the right bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region from Russian forces.
