Russia launches ground offensive in Ukraine's Kharkov region, says Kiev

Russia launched a ground offensive in the Kharkov region of northeastern Ukraine on Friday, trying to ‘break through Kiev's defence lines’, Ukraine's defence ministry said, adding that fighting was continuing. 

Moscow's forces ‘have moved one kilometre into Ukrainian territory’ and are trying to advance further, a source in the Ukrainian military command said at the same time. 

Moscow wants to create a ‘security zone’ in the region to prevent Ukraine from shelling the Russian region of Belgorod. 

‘During the last day, the enemy shelled the Vovchansk sector’ bordering Belgorod with guided bombs, the ministry said. 

‘At around 05:00 in the morning, the enemy tried to break through our defence lines with the help of armoured vehicles,’ the source added, without clarifying the exact location of the attack. 

The ministry said the attacks had been ‘repelled’, but that ‘fighting of varying intensity’ continued and that ‘reserve units’ were deployed to ‘reinforce the defence’ of the area. 

Ukraine has already begun evacuating residents of Vovchansk, home to some 3,000 people, and border towns in the Kharkov region, due to ‘massive shelling’, said Tamaz Gambarashvili, head of the local military administration. 

A significant part of the Kiev region was already occupied by Russia and then liberated in 2022. 

The border region and its capital of the same name, the country's second city, have been regularly shelled in recent months. 

Ukraine has feared for several weeks a possible new Russian offensive in the area. 

The Ukrainian army is struggling on the front line, weakened by a lack of troops and delays in the delivery of Western aid. 

For their part, Russian forces claimed to have gained limited territory, mainly in the east, but made no real progress.