MOSCOW — Fierce fighting was raging on Saturday for control of several Ukrainian villages near the Russian border as the Russian military sought to press home its attacks in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Kharkiv’s governor said.
“As of now the enemy keeps pressing in the north of our region. Our forces have repelled nine attacks,” Oleh Syniehubov told a media briefing.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken five border villages in the Kharkiv region.
However, Syniehubov said clashes were ongoing in all five villages located within a three-to-five kilometers zone from the Russian border.
The Ukrainian military said reinforcements were sent to the region to help stabilise positions and limit Russia’s advances after it launched its new offensive on Friday.
Syniehubov said regional authorities had evacuated more than 2,500 people from the frontier area and that process continued.
Top Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said they do not believe Russia has the capacity to launch a successful operation to capture the city of Kharkiv, home to 1.3 million people.
In a briefing in Moscow, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had taken the villages of Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilechna, all of which are directly on the Russian border.
Officials also said that Russian troops had taken the village of Keramik in the Donetsk region further south, where Moscow has made slow but steady advances since seizing the longtime Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka in February.
Russian forces first attacked the Kharkiv region in February 2022, but were routed from most of the province by a lightning Ukrainian counter-offensive in September of that year.
Russia’s neighbouring Belgorod region has since come under regular Ukrainian drone and artillery strikes.
Asked in March whether Russian forces might need to take Kharkiv, President Vladimir Putin said the only way to secure Russian territory from Ukrainian strikes was to create a buffer zone that would place Moscow’s territory out of range of Kyiv’s forces.
Russia controls about 18% of Ukraine — in the east and south — and has been gaining ground since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counter-offensive to make any serious inroads against well dug-in Russian troops.