Today, Friday, the Russian army announced that it would send reinforcements towards Kharkov, Ukraine, in response to a breakthrough by Ukrainian forces in the area on the border with Russia.
Kyiv announced on Thursday that it has reclaimed about 1,000 square kilometers in the region in northeastern Ukraine in recent days, especially the city of Balaklia, as well as about twenty settlements. “This is a difficult task, but we are making progress,” Valery Zaluzhny, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Telegram.
In the city of Garkov near Kharkov, recaptured from Russian forces two days ago, AFP correspondents saw devastation today, Friday, indicative of the fierce fighting, as police proceeded to exhume the bodies of two possible victims of Russia’s war crime.
“It was scary. There were bombings and explosions everywhere,” Anatoly Vasiliev, 61, one of the few residents left in Garkov, told AFP.
Despite the successes of the Ukrainian forces, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sengopov, urged the residents who left not to return due to the gas and electricity crisis in the settlements recaptured from the Russians.
For their part, the Russian media reported on the transfer of reinforcements in this direction and broadcast videos showing armored vehicles, artillery and trucks in large numbers moving along unidentified roads. Moscow did not comment on this deployment, mentioning only the heavy losses inflicted on Ukrainian troops by the Russian army as a whole.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken from Brussels said that Moscow’s deployment of reinforcements showed Russia was paying a “high price”.
As a sign of Ukrainian progress, pro-Russian authorities in the occupied territories of the region announced on Friday the evacuation of residents to other Moscow-controlled areas or to Russia.
A senior official in the Russian occupation administration, Vitaly Ganchev, told Rossiya 24 TV on Friday that “fierce fighting” was going on around the town of Balakleya, which Kyiv said Thursday had recaptured it.
“We no longer control Balakliya. Attempts to push out the Ukrainian forces continue, but fierce fighting is going on there, and our forces are stuck on the outskirts of the city,” he added.
He stated that there were also battles near the city of Shevchenkovi in the Kharkiv region. “The Ukrainian armed forces are trying to break through the defense lines. Reservists from Russia have been sent there, our forces are responding,” he added.
In its evening exodus, the Ukrainian army confirmed it was inflicting “heavy losses” on the enemy, saying it saw disappointment in the morale of Russian troops.
Kharkiv, the capital of the region of the same name and the second city of Ukraine, is located in the north-east of the country right on the border with Russia and has been resisting since the beginning of the February 24 invasion.
For its part, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported a “complete power outage” in the Ukrainian city of Energodar, where the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is located, which “affects the safety of operation.”
In addition to breaking through in the area, Kyiv on Thursday also announced a series of victories in the south and east, highlighting that it has captured several districts and cities.
If these Ukrainian gains are consolidated, they will be considered the most important for Kyiv since the withdrawal of Russian troops from the outskirts of Kyiv at the end of March.
In the Donbass mining basin in eastern Ukraine, where the most intense fighting has taken place in recent months, Kyiv confirmed on Thursday that its forces had advanced two to three kilometers around Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and regained control of the town of Uzerny.
Eight civilians were killed on Thursday and another 17 were injured in Russian strikes, 45 kilometers from Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Bakhmut, which had a population of 70,000 before the conflict broke out in late February, has been without water and electricity for the fourth day in a row, according to local governor Pavel Kirilenko.
During a visit to Prague, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hailed Ukraine’s recent victories and noted that Western weapons such as US HIMARS are being used to “rebalance the battlefield.” “We are now seeing progress in Kherson (south) and Kharkov, and therefore things are encouraging,” he said.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Brussels to attend a meeting with NATO and intends to emphasize the “unity” of the members of the organization “so that our alliance is as strong as possible to deter Russia from any new aggression.”
