Russia launched a shock offensive into Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv area final Friday (File)
Kyiv, Ukraine:
Ukraine sees no threat of a floor assault on the northeastern metropolis of Kharkiv, regardless of a brand new offensive towards the area that included greater than 30,000 Russian troops, Ukraine’s safety council chief stated Monday.
Russia launched a shock offensive into Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv area final Friday, making small advances right into a border zone it was pushed again from practically two years in the past.
“In the mean time, Russian actions within the border space are ongoing,” Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the newly appointed secretary of Ukraine’s safety council advised AFP in an interview.
“We will say that we do not see any menace of assault on the town of Kharkiv.”
“However there are loads of Russians, quite a bit. About 50,000 have been on the border. Now there are way more than 30,000 coming,” he stated.
He stated the Russian offensive was seemingly geared toward making a “buffer zone” to restrict Ukraine’s capability to strike Russia’s border areas.
Moscow claims to have made small inroads within the Kharkiv area, capturing a number of villages and advancing in the direction of the border city of Vovchansk, the place Ukraine has reported heavy shelling.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov stated Monday that greater than 30 cities and villages “have been struck by enemy artillery and mortar assaults”, wounding at the least 9 individuals.
Simply days into the brand new offensive, Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked long-running defence minister Sergei Shoigu, changing him with economist Andrei Belousov.
Commenting on the army shake-up, Lytvynenko stated Belousov was an “skilled supervisor able to making certain a long-term conflict of attrition” with “severe ties” to Russian intelligence.
“This implies that Putin is planning a conflict for a protracted time period forward. And a conflict not solely with Ukraine, however with the West as an entire. A conflict with NATO,” Lytvynenko stated.
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