Days after launching a surprise ground offensive across the border that drove thousands of people to flee, Russia trampled through towns and villages in the northeastern Kharkiv area of Ukraine on Monday.
After Russia launched a ground attack on Friday that resulted in the evacuation of nearly 6,000 people, the Ukrainian army admitted that Russia was “achieving tactical success”.
However, President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that a “counterattack” was still in progress and that Ukraine had brought in reinforcements.
“Our task is clear: to thwart Russia’s attempt to expand the war,” he said in an evening address.
Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had “improved the tactical position and dealt a blow to (Ukrainian) manpower” around border villages, including Lyptsi, and the town of Vovchansk.
Kateryna Stepanova, 74, who fled Lyptsi with her son, said several bombs had hit her street.
“We weren’t going to leave… but now this. Thankfully, we’re alive,” she said, sitting in a minibus at a gathering point for evacuees.
“They are shelling the villages, firing everything they can,” Sergiy Kryvetchenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian military administration in Lyptsi, told AFP.
“There are a lot of Russians, quite a lot. About 50,000 were on the border. Now there are much more than 30,000 coming,” he told AFP.
To combat the unexpected Russian attack, the White House declared on Monday that it was doing “everything” in its power to send weaponry to Ukraine.
“We’re doing everything humanly possible, both ourselves and our allies,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters, saying a new arms package would be announced “in the coming days.”
