Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that this month’s Russian attack in northeastern Kharkiv may be just the “first wave” of several attacks. Russian forces may then aim for the city of Kharkov. “We need to calm down and understand that they are moving deep into our territory, not the other way around,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with AFP on Friday. He added that Russian forces “want to attack” the city, one of Ukraine’s largest, but know it would be “very difficult.”
Zelenskiy said the situation in the region, where Russia had captured several border villages, was “under control” but “not stabilized.” After Ukraine sent reinforcements. The president said Russian forces had penetrated five to 10 kilometers along the northeastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian forces.
Russia launched additional attacks on Kharkiv on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding 28 others.said Mayor Igor Terekhov. Kharkov region governor Oleg Sinegubov said Russian troops were trying to surround the nearly deserted town of Vovtyansk near the border. One man was killed in Russia’s airstrike on Vovtyansk.
Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Shirushkyi said Russian forces had launched an offensive in the Kharkov region, expanding the fighting area by about 70 kilometers. Shirschiky said Russia launched the offensive to force Ukraine to bring additional reserve brigades into the fight. He added that he expected fighting to intensify as the military also prepared to defend the northern region of Sumy.
President Vladimir Putin said Russian troops advancing into the Kharkiv region were creating a “buffer zone” to protect Russia’s border areas.However, he said that the capture of the city of Kharkiv is not included in Moscow’s current plans. The Russian president, who made the comments at a press conference during a state visit to China, said the recent attacks on the Kharkiv region were a response to Ukrainian shelling of Russian border areas such as Belgorod.
One person killed, one injured in Belgorod region in Ukrainian drone attacksaid regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Friday. Russia’s Ministry of Defense later reported that its air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 14 multiple rockets from Ukraine. A major Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea early Friday caused a power outage in the city of Sevastopol and a fire at an oil refinery in southern Russia.
Zelenskiy acknowledged that more troops are needed to boost the morale of Ukraine’s military. “We need to staff the reserves…a large number of [brigades] It’s empty,” the president said. Many Ukrainian soldiers have been fighting for more than two years without the possibility of discharge. The military is struggling to recruit, while combatants are becoming exhausted and angry over a lack of rotation. “We need to allow the players to do their normal rotations. Then their morale will improve,” Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine has only a quarter of the air defense it needs and called for more than 100 aircraft to be deployed to counter Russia’s air power. “Our fleet needs to have 120 to 130 modern aircraft and protect the skies from 300 aircraft so that Russia does not have air superiority.” [Russian] “It’s a plane,” he said.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kalas said Friday that President Putin is trying to weaponize the threat of mass migration to divide and weaken Europe. “Our enemies know that immigration is our vulnerability,” she said. “The aim is to make life in Ukraine really impossible and to put pressure on migrants to Europe, and this is what they are doing.” Karas said some European countries are trying to make life in Ukraine really impossible. He admitted he doesn’t see the threat the same way. “They don’t understand and they don’t believe that if Ukraine collapses, Europe is at risk. All of Europe, maybe some countries, but all of Europe is at risk. Not that there is.”
