Several dozen localities in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, ordered the evacuation of their inhabitants on Thursday in the face of the advance of the Russian army which, on the offensive, says it is “improving its position”.
The Russian army had been driven out of the city of Kupyansk and its surroundings, which it had occupied since the start of the invasion, by a Ukrainian lightning counter-attack in September 2022. For several weeks, it has been in this area that it has gone back on the offensive, regularly claiming territorial gains.
The Ukrainian army admitted on Thursday a “difficult” situation in this sector. “The situation remains difficult, but under control,” Serguiy Tcherevaty, army spokesman for the eastern sector of the front, said on Telegram, using a common formulation used by Kiev during attacks by its opponent. “The Russians are trying to impose themselves and break through our defence,” he added.
“In the direction of Kupyansk, the assault units of the Western combat groups during offensive actions improved their positions in the front line,” the Russian Defense Ministry previously said in its daily report.
Faced with this progress, a decree signed by the local authorities ordered the evacuation of 37 localities in the Kupiansk district, an important communication node. These are mainly villages located near the front, on the left bank of the Oskil River.
“The evacuation began yesterday, when the order was signed,” the head of the military administration of the city of Kupyansk, Andriy Besedin, told state television on Thursday.
The administration of Kupiansk, a city of around 25,000 inhabitants before the war, recommended in the morning that its inhabitants evacuate in the direction of Kharkiv, the regional capital, in particular, because of “the difficult security situation and the ‘increase in the number of bombings’.
According to the regional governor, Oleg Sinegoubov, two inhabitants were injured during the night in the village of Kindrachivka, affected by the evacuation. Kupiansk was also hit twice, he said, posting a photo of a bomb-damaged administrative building but no casualties.
According to maps appearing in the Russian Defense Ministry’s video briefing, troops from Moscow are believed to be only a few kilometers from Kupyansk. On Monday, the Russian army said it had advanced three kilometers towards this city in three days.
In another region, near the southern front, at least one person was killed and nine injured on Thursday after a Russian strike on Zaporizhia, already targeted the day before, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“The city is under daily bombardment from Russia,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who posted a video showing a car on fire near the Reikartz hotel in Zaporizhia.
If they have long been limited, Ukrainian attacks in border areas of Russia are also increasingly frequent.
After the death of a civilian in the Belgorod region on Wednesday, two people were killed this time in a Ukrainian bombardment that hit the village of Chaoussy, in the Bryansk region, according to regional governor Alexander Bogomaz who clarified on Telegram that A man and a woman also “suffered more or less serious injuries”.
At the same time, the drone warfare continues, with territories controlled by Russia coming under increasing attack.
Moscow claimed early Thursday that it shot down 13 Ukrainian aircraft, including 11 near the annexed Crimean peninsula and two heading towards Moscow.
One of the missiles targeting the capital was shot down by air defense in the Kaluga region, southwest of the capital, the second in the Moscow region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
The two drones were shot down around 4 a.m. local time (0100 GMT), according to the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, on Telegram. Air authorities said that two Moscow airports, Domodedovo and Vnukovo, briefly interrupted their flights.
In Crimea, “near the city of Sevastopol, two drones were hit by the devices of the anti-aircraft defense in service, nine others were neutralized by means of electronic warfare and crashed into the Black Sea before reaching the target,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The Ukrainian army for its part claimed that ten “Shahed” explosive drones, manufactured by Iran, were launched against its territory during the night, seven of them having been destroyed. In Doubno, in the northwest, a fuel depot was destroyed without causing any casualties, reported the regional governor.
On the economic level, Kiev assured that it had opened “temporary” corridors on the Black Sea overnight to allow the movement of ships carrying its cereals, despite threats from Russia warning these ships that they could be targeted by its army. .
It was not immediately clear whether ships had already left the Ukrainian coast or not, as warlike episodes have increased in the Black Sea since July.
10/08/2023 19:56:44 – Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP