The Russian military announced on Friday that it had sent reinforcements to Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in response to an apparently successful advance by Kyiv forces into this Russian border area.
Kyiv said Thursday that it had recovered some 700 km2 in this region of northeastern Ukraine in recent days, in particular the city of Balakliïa, as well as about twenty other towns. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from Brussels that Moscow’s deployment of reinforcements shows that Russia is paying “an enormous price.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense, which did not comment on the issue, nevertheless announced to Russian news agencies the deployment of reinforcements in that direction, broadcasting a video showing armored vehicles, howitzers and trucks circulating in large numbers on non-geolocated roads. . It did not issue a statement detailing or commenting on these deployments.
“Hard Fight”
A senior official in the occupation administration set up by Moscow in areas controlled by the Russian military, Vitali Gantchev, told Russia’s Rossiya 24 TV channel on Friday that “fierce fighting” was taking place around the town of Balakliïa, which kyiv said the thursday i had reconquered
“We no longer control Balakliya. Attempts are being made to dislodge Ukrainian forces, but the fighting there is fierce and our troops are held on the outskirts” of the city, he said.
According to him, heavy fighting is also taking place near the city of Shevchenkové, still in the Kharkiv region. “There too, the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to break through the defenses. Russian reserves have been sent there, our troops are fighting back,” Vitali Gantchev said.
The road from Kharkiv to the southeast, towards Balakliïa, was open to traffic on Friday morning, an AFP team noted, an area that the Ukrainian army appears to have recaptured during the fighting in recent days. Many civilian cars circulated, as well as military vehicles. Queues were also visible at various checkpoints.
Ukraine has a number of successes
Kharkiv, capital of the region of the same name and Ukraine’s second largest city, is located in the northeast of the country, right on the border with Russia, and has been resisting Russian efforts to conquer it since the beginning of the February 24 invasion.
In addition to the advance in this region, Kyiv also scored a series of successes in the south and east on Thursday, claiming to have taken possession of territories and many localities. If consolidated, these recent Ukrainian gains, along with those claimed in the south and east, are the most significant for Ukraine since the withdrawal of Russian troops from around Kyiv in late March.
In Donbass, a mining basin in eastern Ukraine that has seen the heaviest fighting of the war in recent months, Kyiv said on Thursday it had advanced two to three kilometers near Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and recaptured the town of Ozerne.
Source: BFM TV
