kyiv | that the Russian offensive against the Kharkiv region has been “stopped”. War in Ukraine

Ukraine vowed on Friday to have “stopped” a two-week Russian offensive on the Kharkiv region and launched a counteroffensive in what President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was targeting in the country’s northeast.

The Russian military launched an offensive across the border into the Kharkiv region on May 10, seizing several areas and forcing Ukraine to deploy valuable reinforcements in the region.

After two weeks of fighting, Ukrainian security forces stopped Russian troops And Take counter-offensive measuresColonel Igor Prokhorenko, an officer of the Ukrainian General Staff, said on Friday.

He described the situation hard But still Stable and under control He accused Moscow of abuse, cutting it in two, particularly in the area where fighting is taking place for control of the city of Vovtsansk.

The enemy was completely trapped in the Vovsansk street fighting and suffered very significant lossesUkrainian Army Chief of Staff General Oleksandr Chirsky made the pledge on Friday, confirming that Moscow was sending. Reserves to continue his attack.

Western postponement

According to kyiv, Russia is aiming to stretch the defensive lines of Ukrainian forces, weakened by two years of war, lacking new recruits and short on weapons due to months of Western procrastination.

Since May 10, nearly 11,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes in the region, Governor Oleg Sinekubov said Thursday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he will visit Kharkiv on Friday, specifically for meetings related to Security of the region, especially in Vovchansk.

The city of Kharkiv and the entire region deserve our support, gratitude and respectHe wrote on social networks.

As for other sections of the front, General Sirsky’s tone was more relaxed.

Further south in the Kharkiv region, the Russians have been on the offensive near Kubiansk for nearly a year. The situation is complicated in the Kislivka sector, where the enemy is trying to break through our defenses and reach the Oskil River.

In the Donbass, the official reported heavy skirmishes in the direction of Chasiv Iyer, Pokrovsk, and Kurakov, where the Russians had been sweeping the ground for months without achieving a decisive breakthrough.

Finally, The most intense and violent fighting took place in the Pokrovsk and Kurakov divisions. The enemy is trying to break through the defenses of our troops in a narrow area between Staromikhalivka and Berdychi.He clarified.

Buffer

Russia says it launched the offensive in May to create a buffer zone in northeastern Ukraine to prevent a Ukrainian offensive.

Russian advances appear to have increased in recent days near Chasiv Yar after the May 10 offensive. Moscow specifically said it seized two villages in Ukraine’s unliberated outskirts last summer.

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The Kremlin is trying to take advantage of the fact that the opposing military has been weakened by the loss of US military aid and months of paralysis.

In addition, Ukraine still lacks anti-aircraft defenses, and the Europeans and Americans are demanding that it finally authorize the use of supplied weapons to attack military rear bases on Russian territory, an escalation the West has so far refused to fear.

So President Zelensky is stepping up his interventions, pressuring his allies to provide him with anti-missile systems and to authorize him to strike military targets in Russia with Western weapons.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to bomb Kharkiv, the country’s second city. About fifteen missiles hit it on Thursday, killing seven civilians.

Fresh blasts overnight Thursday into Friday damaged the region’s railway infrastructure, vital to the economy and travel, especially in a country without air links for more than two years.

Ukraine, for its part, continues to attack the occupied territories, Russian territories and Crimea, annexed in 2014. The Russian governor of the peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, said two civilians were killed in the Simferopol district in the center of the peninsula. .