Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces withdrew from parts of the country’s northeast and clashed with Russian troops in other areas on Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to postpone all his upcoming foreign trips underscored the seriousness of the threat his soldiers face.
Against this grim backdrop, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to reassure Ukraine of continued US support, announcing a $2 billion arms deal. Most of the money comes from a program approved last month.
The top diplomat’s trip comes as Russian troops launch a new offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. It began last week, marking the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 and forcing thousands to flee their homes. In recent weeks, Moscow’s forces have also sought to consolidate their gains in the eastern Donetsk region. Taken together, these developments mean that the war has entered a critical phase for the exhausted Ukrainian army.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported Tuesday evening that troops withdrew from two areas of Kharkiv – Lukyantsi and Vovchansk – “in order to save the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses.” Russia said it had captured Lukyantsi.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims of both parties.
Vovchansk – just 5 kilometers from the Russian border – has been at the center of much of the recent fighting, and Ukrainian and Russian troops fought in its streets on Wednesday. Oleksii Kharkivskyi, head of the city’s police patrol, said Russian troops were taking up positions in the city, while the Ukrainian General Staff said its forces were trying to flush them out.
Gunshots were heard in the background of a video posted by the police official on his Instagram page.
Ukraine’s presidential office said additional reinforcements were being deployed to the region, including army reserve units.
At a dangerous time, Blinken was in Ukraine to highlight U.S. support, even though most of the money he announced Wednesday, about $1.6 billion, came from the $60 billion allocated to Ukraine in additional foreign aid legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. , officials said.
He said the money would be used for three purposes: supplying weapons in the short term, investing in Ukraine’s defense industrial base and allowing Ukraine to purchase military supplies from other countries.
At a news conference with Blinken, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said of the aid: “This is a very powerful message to both our friends and our enemies. »
Blinken said Washington understood the urgency of Ukraine’s need for additional air defenses to protect against Russian assaults and was prioritizing them in its assistance.
He added that the United States has “neither encouraged nor permitted strikes outside of Ukraine” using long-range weapons supplied by the United States. This decision rests with the kyiv authorities, he said.
Britain has said it places no limits on Ukraine’s use of weapons supplied by Britain to hit targets on Russian soil, but Germany, another major supporter, has hesitated about this idea and ruled it out for fear of an escalation of the conflict.
Russia is opening new fronts to expand the ammunition- and manpower-starved Ukrainian army along a front line of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), hoping that the defenses will collapse. Russian artillery and sabotage raids also threaten the Chernihiv and Sumy regions of northern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry also claimed that its troops had recaptured the village of Robotnye in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian forces took control of the village last August, which was seen as an important advance in a counter-offensive that eventually petered out.
Elsewhere in Ukraine’s southern regions, an air attack on the central Kherson district injured 17 civilians, the regional prosecutor’s office said. And a Russian missile attack injured six people in Mykolaiv, according to Ukrainian rescue services.
Nonetheless, the Institute for the Study of War said late Tuesday that the pace of Russia’s advance in the Kharkiv border region, where it launched an offensive late last week and achieved significant progress, had slowed down. The Washington-based think tank said Moscow’s main goal was to create a “buffer zone” that would prevent Ukrainian cross-border strikes on Russia’s Belgorod region.
Despite this, Zelensky’s office announced Wednesday that he was canceling all his upcoming foreign visits and would try to reschedule them.
Zelensky was expected to travel to Spain, and possibly Portugal, later this week. No reason was given for her decision, but the difficulties on the front line loomed over her.
Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down several Ukrainian missiles over the Black Sea and near the Belbek air base, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said. Sevastopol is the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Fragments from the downed missiles fell in residential areas but caused no casualties, Razvozhayev said.
Russian air defenses also shot down nine Ukrainian drones, two Vilha rockets, two HARM anti-radar missiles and two Hammer guided bombs over the Belgorod region on Wednesday morning, the Defense Ministry said.
Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov region, said two drones attacked a fuel depot. He said there were no casualties or fires.
Ukraine has launched a regular series of drone attacks on oil refineries and fuel depots across Russia in recent months, causing significant damage.
___
Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona, Spain.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
ABC News
