Ukraine is defending itself in the north and is under pressure along the entire front line

Ukraine is defending itself in the north and is under pressure along the entire front line

Ukrainian troops said Thursday they were slowing the pace of an offensive push by Russia in their country's northeast, even as they struggled to contain new Russian attacks in several other frontline locations, as Moscow tried to force troops of Kiev to expand to break through. their defense.

The Ukrainian army reported late Wednesday that it had repulsed four ground attacks in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces crossed the border last week and quickly captured a dozen villages and about 80 square kilometers of territory.

“During the day, our defense and security forces of Ukraine – all units involved – managed to partially stabilize the situation,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Wednesday evening. “Our attention is constantly focused on the front line, on all combat zones.”

Ukrainian civilians evacuated Thursday said Russian troops had fought in small units sneaking through the forest and into villages. They have unexpectedly appeared on the streets of the city of Vovchansk, a village tens of kilometers east of the city of Kharkov, which is now disputed between the two armies.

Oleksiy Kharkivskiy, a police officer who evacuates civilians, said the northern parts of Vovchansk are now in the crosshairs of Russian tanks but are not fully controlled by the Russian military. and around the village, although artillery shelling occurs regularly.

Yet more Russian attacks were reported elsewhere, both east of the Kharkov region and further south in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions. “We clearly see how the occupying forces are trying to distract our forces and make our combat work less concentrated,” Mr. Zelensky said.

In particular, Russian forces appeared to have launched new attacks on the southern village of Robotyne, one of the few places Ukraine managed to retake during its largely failed counter-offensive last summer.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had taken full control of Robotyne. Ukrainian officials said this was not true, and pro-Kremlin military bloggers also denied this, saying Russian forces only controlled parts of Robotyne.

“Russian information forces periodically organize such provocations,” said Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Southern Armed Forces of Ukraine. “To do this, they organize performances in the combat zone with the installation of the Russian national flag. For example, in the suburbs they usually die afterwards.”

At the same time, Russia's push to seize more territory in the eastern Donetsk region, one of the two regions that make up the Donbas, continued unabated. Heavy fighting is taking place around the town of Khasiv Yar, about six miles west of Bakhmut, and in the area northwest of the town of Avdiivka, which Russia captured in February.

“The way I see it, Khasiv Yar is twice harder than Kupiansk, and Kupiansk is twice harder than the northern border,” said Pavlo, a soldier fighting in the Donbas who declined to give his surname as per military protocol.

“The operation in Kharkov is very similar to what happened earlier with the village of Ocheretyne,” he said, referring to a village northwest of Avdiivka that Russia captured in late April. “They hit different places, and where they see a crack in the defense, they go in.”

The attacks on the northern Kharkov region are accompanied by speculation that something similar could happen in the Sumy region, further to the northwest and also near the Russian border. Shelling took place overnight in the region, with 183 explosions along the border area reported by the military government of the Sumy region.

Andrew E. Kramer And Evelina Riabenko contributed reporting from Kharkov, and Constant Méheut from Kiev.