Russia ‘seizes 4 extra villages’ in cross-border assault in Kharkiv

Russia this morning pressed its offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, bearing down on the town of Vovchansk from three directions and forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes.

The operation, launched last Friday just days after Vladimir Putin‘s inauguration for a fifth presidential term, saw Russian artillery and airstrikes pound towns and villages in Kharkiv before Moscow‘s troops surged across the border once again. 

With Kyiv‘s resources stretched thin as weary soldiers await sorely-needed Western weaponry, Putin’s troops simply ‘walked in’ because ‘there was no first line of defence’, according to one Ukrainian commander who spoke to the BBC. 

Shocking drone footage circulating on social media appears to show Russian soldiers marching through fields just north of Vovchansk that commander Denys Yaroslavskyi lamented had not been mined or defended.

Now the Russian units have reportedly seized four towns across the border, regained roughly 62 square miles of territory, and are forging a path towards Vovchansk, roughly three miles further into Kharkiv.  

By Sunday afternoon, Vovchansk – town with a prewar population of 17,000, emerged as a focal point in the battle with Russian troops seeking to encircle it by taking the nearby settlements of Buhruvatka, Starytsya, and Izbytske.

The intense battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw, capitulating more land to Russian forces across the less defended settlements in the so-called contested gray zone along the Russian border. 

Volodymyr Tymoshko, the head of the Kharkiv regional police, said yesterday evening that Russian forces were on the outskirts of Vovchansk and approaching from three directions.

Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the town as Russian forces hurled shells, with images trickling through on local Telegram channels showing how houses and buildings had been destroyed or heavily damaged.

Evacuation teams worked nonstop throughout the day to take residents, most of whom were older, out of harm’s way, while other photos appeared to show a small number of Ukrainian armoured vehicles heading out of the town toward the fighting.

Nearly 6,000 civilians have fled the Kharkiv region since Friday, when Moscow’s forces launched the operation, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said in a social media statement. 

Analysts say the Russian push is designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies can reach the front line.

Ukrainian soldiers meanwhile said the Kremlin is using the usual Russian tactic of launching a disproportionate amount of fire and infantry assaults to exhaust Kyiv’s troops and firepower. 

By intensifying battles in what was previously a static patch of the front line, Russian forces threaten to pin down Ukrainian forces in the northeast, while carrying out intense battles farther south where Moscow is also gaining ground.

It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements in Kharkiv, which analysts predicted were a concerted effort to shape conditions for an offensive.  

But border towns remained poorly fortified amid the constant heavy shelling and scant resources. 

Commander Yaroslavskyi, whose forces helped to repel the Russian advance towards Kharkiv in 2022, was enraged by the lack of defence and suspected officials tasked with organising the fortification of the border had not followed through. 

‘There was no first line of defence. We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined fields’ he told the BBC. 

‘Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn’t a failure. It was a betrayal’.

In his nightly address Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not recognise Russia’s claims to four towns in Kharkiv, but admitted that ‘grey zone areas’ were being hotly contested. 

‘Defensive battles and fierce fighting continue on a large part of our border,’ Zelensky said.

‘There are villages that have actually turned from a ‘grey zone’ into a combat zone, and the occupier is trying to gain a foothold in some of them, or simply use them for further advancement.’

Speaking at an evacuation point near Vovchansk, Oleksiy Kharkivsky, a senior police officer helping to coordinate evacuations, said the area was ‘constantly under fire’.

‘Everything in the city is being destroyed… You hear constant explosions, artillery, mortars. The enemy is hitting the city with everything they have,’ he said.

Meanwhile in Kharkiv city – Ukraine’s second largest some 25 miles from the border with Russia – mayor Igor Terekhov sought to keep the populace calm.

He quoted by the city council yesterday as saying there was no reason for people to leave the city despite Russia’s offensive a mere 20 or so miles away.

‘Despite all the events that are taking place in the region, Kharkiv is calm. We do not see people leaving,’ he said.