Ukraine said it had halted Russia’s advance in parts of the eastern Kharkiv region and accused Moscow’s troops of taking local residents captive and killing at least one civilian who tried to escape from them in the embattled border town of Vovchansk.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Kharkiv on Thursday and met officials and active and wounded soldiers, as Russia continued to attack areas near the northern frontier of the region, where it has seized several villages in the past week.
His office said he “received a detailed report ... on the operational situation, the tasks and needs of each brigade and unit involved, including those in the Kharkiv region near Vovchansk and Lyptsi,” referring to two towns under the most threat of occupation.
“As of today, the situation in the Kharkiv region is generally under control, and our warriors are inflicting significant losses on the occupier. However, the situation in this direction remains extremely difficult, so our units are being reinforced,” the presidential administration added.
Ukrainian army spokesman Nazar Voloshin said “the defence forces have managed to partially stabilise the situation. We are destroying the occupiers who entered the Kharkiv region with everything we have ... The advance of the enemy in certain areas and in certain settlements has been stopped.”
[ A Ukrainian writer on his journey from torture camp to front lineOpens in new window ]
The general staff of Ukraine’s military said its units had prevented Russian forces from gaining a foothold deep inside Vovchansk and were in a position to fire upon enemy movements in the town, which is less than 10km from the border.
Kharkiv officials say nearly 9,000 civilians have been evacuated from particularly dangerous areas of the region in recent days, as shelling has intensified and Russian troops reached northern districts of Vovchansk. At least two people were killed and six injured in shelling of the region Thursday, and the head of the Vovchansk administration, Tamaz Gambarashvili, was reportedly among those injured.
“In the northern part of Vovchansk, where active hostilities are taking place, the Russian military is taking civilians captive,” Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.
“As of now, according to operational information, the Russian military, which has been trying to gain a foothold in the city, is not allowing local residents to evacuate: people have begun to be taken captive and herded into basements,” he added.
“We know of the first cases of executions of civilians by Russian servicemen: namely, one Vovchansk resident tried to escape on foot and refused to obey the commands of the invaders — the Russians killed him.”
Mr Klymenko said Kharkiv police had opened a war crimes investigation into the incident, but his account could not be verified.
Analysts say Moscow appears intent on creating a “buffer zone” in the Kharkiv region to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the neighbouring Russian border region of Belgorod and wants to draw Ukrainian troops away from defensive positions in the Donetsk region, which has been the main focus of Russia’s attacks for most of the 25-month war.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said this week that his forces were advancing in all areas of combat in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s military is outnumbered and outgunned as it waits for more western arms and a fresh influx of mobilised troops.
Russia said it intercepted 11 Ukrainian aerial drones on Thursday and destroyed 11 marine drones in the Black Sea.
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