Ukrainian forces said on Thursday they were slowing the pace of a Russian offensive in their country’s northeast, even as they struggled to contain new Russian attacks at several other frontline locations, as Moscow sought to stretch kyiv’s troops. to make way. their defenses.
The Ukrainian military reported late Wednesday that it had repelled four ground attacks in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where Russian forces crossed the border last week and quickly captured a dozen villages and about 50 square miles of territory.
“Over the course of the day, our Ukrainian Defense and Security Forces, all units involved, managed to partially stabilize the situation,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Wednesday evening. “Our attention is constantly focused on the front line, in all combat zones.”
Ukrainian civilians who were evacuated Thursday said Russian forces had been fighting in small units slipping through the forest and toward villages. They have appeared unexpectedly on the streets of the city of Vovchansk, a village a dozen miles east of the city of Kharkiv that is now contested between the two armies.
Oleksiy Kharkivskiy, a police officer evacuating civilians, said the northern parts of Vovchansk were now in the crosshairs of Russian tanks but not fully controlled by the Russian military, the same situation as several days ago, suggesting that the fighting has slowed down in and around the town, although artillery bombardments are frequent.
Still, more Russian attacks were reported elsewhere, both east of the Kharkiv region and further south in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. “We clearly see how the occupier is trying to distract our forces and make our combat work less focused,” Zelensky said.
In particular, Russian troops appeared to have launched new attacks on the southern village of Robotyne, one of the few places Ukraine managed to recapture during its largely failed counteroffensive last summer.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops had taken full control of Robotyne on Wednesday. Ukrainian officials said that was not true, and pro-Kremlin military bloggers also denied it, saying that Russian forces controlled only parts of Robotyne.
“Russian intelligence troops regularly organize such provocations,” said Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Southern Ukrainian Defense Forces. “To do this, they organize performances in the combat zone with the installation of the Russian national flag. In the outskirts, for example, they usually die later.”
At the same time, Russia’s push to seize more territory in the eastern Donetsk region, one of the two regions that make up Donbas, continued unabated. Fierce fighting is taking place around the town of Chasiv Yar, about six miles west of Bakhmut, and in the area northwest of the town of Avdiivka, which Russia captured in February.
“The way I see it, Chasiv Yar is twice as tough as Kupiansk, and Kupiansk is twice as tough as the northern border,” said Pavlo, a soldier fighting in Donbass, who declined to give his last name out of military protocol. .
“The Kharkiv operation is very similar to what happened previously with the village of Ocheretyne,” he said, referring to a village northwest of Avdiivka that Russia captured in late April. “They hit various places and where they find a crack in the defense, they go in.”
The attacks in the northern Kharkiv region are accompanied by speculation that something similar could be happening in the Sumy region, further to the northwest and also near the Russian border. During the night there were shelling in the region and the military administration of the Sumy region reported 183 explosions along the border area.
Andres Kramer and Evelina Riabenko contributed reports from Kharkiv, and Constant Méheut from Kyiv.