Russian forces bear down on Ukraine border town in Kharkiv region

NEAR VOVCHANSK, Ukraine — Russian forces attacking Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region were engaged in fighting on the outskirts of the border town of Vovchansk, Kyiv’s troops said on Sunday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described heavy fighting there and in the east.

Moscow troops entered into the Kharkiv region on Friday, opening a northeastern front in the 27-month war that has long been waged in the south and east. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border.

Soldiers returning from a combat mission in the area said the fighting had reached the edges of Vovchansk, a town around 4 km from the border and 45 km from Kharkiv city, describing helping some troops break out of Russian encirclement.

“The town is ours. They (the Russians) are biting on the outskirts, but we are biting back. And we will bite for every meter,” said a Ukrainian soldier.

“Our boys got surrounded. We helped them. They got out and set up a defensive line along the street, inflicting considerable losses to enemy infantry.”

In a post-midnight report, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces had achieved “tactical success” with 14 of 22 attempted advances in the area still proceeding.

Fighting was raging around Vovchansk, it said, with Russian forces “deploying significant forces for its attack on the town.” But it said Russian troops were “taking no account of their own losses”, with at least 100 reported dead.

The Russian military says it has seized control of at least nine border villages in the Kharkiv region. Kyiv says it is repelling the attacks and battling to control the settlements.

Several Russian media outlets, including Mash and Readovka, reported that Moscow’s troops had entered Vovchansk.

The main thrusts of Russia’s attack were aimed at Vovchansk and the town of Lyptsi around 7.5 km from the border and some 20 km (12 miles) from the city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian military spokesperson Nazar Voloshyn said.

Tamaz Gambarashvili, head of Vovchansk’s military administration, told Reuters the town remained under Ukrainian control after its soldiers turned back small groups of Russians.

Russian drones, he said, were “constantly above Vovchansk.”

Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said Russian forces were “intensifying their shelling of Vovchansk”. Nearly 6,000 residents had been evacuated from the area, he said.

Volunteers in flak jackets and helmets raced through village neighborhoods, pleading with residents in damaged homes to pack up a handful of possessions and leave for evacuation points.

Evacuee Kostiantyn Tymchenko said fighting was raging 500 meters from his house, with Russian troops on the opposite bank of the Vovcha River.

“Ukrainian tanks roll in, shoot and roll out. On the other side there is shouting all the time,” he told Reuters.