Zelensky says Ukraine has regained control of areas of besieged Kharkiv region

Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have ensured “combat control” of areas where Russian troops entered the northeastern Kharkiv region earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“Our soldiers have now managed to take control of the border area through which the Russian occupiers entered,” Zelensky said Friday evening in his video speech.

Zelensky’s comments appear to contradict those of Russian officials.

Viktor Vodolatskiy, a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Russian forces now controlled more than half of the town of Vovchansk, five kilometers inside the border, the state news agency reported on Friday. Russian Tass.

Vovchansk has been a hotbed of fighting since Russia launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10.

Vodolatskiy also reportedly said that once Vovchansk was secured, Russian forces would target the towns of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk in the neighboring Donetsk region.

No independent confirmation of these claims was immediately possible.

The Russian push into Kharkiv appears to be a new, coordinated offensive that includes testing Ukrainian defenses in the Donetsk region further south, while also launching incursions into the northern regions of Sumy and Chernihiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin’s military was trying to create a “buffer zone” in the Kharkiv region to prevent Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

The city of Kharkiv, capital of the region of the same name, is located approximately 20 kilometers from the Russian border. Moscow’s troops have captured villages in the region in recent weeks as part of a broad offensive, and analysts say they may try to get within artillery range of the city. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than 11,000 people from the region since the offensive began.

The Russian advance is shaping up to be the biggest test for Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces pressed in several places along the border line. front of approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) that winds from north to north. to the south, in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s problems have mounted in recent months as it attempts to resist a much larger enemy, and the war appears to be at a critical juncture.

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Morton reported from London.

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