After heavy shelling of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, Russian forces smashed through the border over recent days and say they have pushed Ukrainian forces out of at least nine villages in the area.
The move threatens to open up a new front and has forced Ukraine to dedicate additional troops to the area just as Russian forces advance at key points along the front in the south and the east.
Russian troops on Sunday said they seized another four villages – Hatyshche, Krasne, Morokhovets and Oliinykove – in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Russian military bloggers said Russia was taking advantage of its numerical superiority to push hard into relatively undefended areas with small highly mobile units of troops, which then surrounded Ukrainian positions.
Ukraine’s military chief said his country’s forces were facing a difficult situation in fighting in the Kharkiv region, but that they were doing all they could to hold the line.
In response to Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod, Putin suggested in March that Moscow could try to establish a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution, and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces.
About 14 000 people were killed there between 2014 and the end of 2021, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including 3 106 civilians.