We postpone our war policy in Ukraine for today.
We’ll be back with all major updates overnight and resume our normal live updates in the morning.
Thank you for moving on.
In our previous article we told you about a Ukrainian attack in the occupied Luhansk region.
Today, Russian news agencies quoted officials as saying three more people were killed and seven others wounded.
According to Russian state media, the attack caused a fire at an oil depot in the area.
Ukrainian bloggers and Telegram channels reported on the attack, saying the oil depot was hit directly.
It is time for such an attack in 3 days.
The Ukrainian military launched an attack and a fire near an oil depot in the occupied Luhansk region, Russia’s official TASS news agency reported.
Ukrainian bloggers and Telegram channels said the depot in the city of Rovenky was attacked.
Several images showing a giant fire have been posted online, but have been verified via Sky News.
In Kovchansk, the Ukrainian government helped civilians evacuate due to heavy shelling.
The city’s border in the Kharkiv region has been the target of intense attacks.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy released an update on the situation in Kharkiv.
In a Telegram post, the Ukrainian president said Russian troops had tried to expand their operations.
But he added that Ukraine understands “the magnitude of the occupier’s forces. “
“We see their plan,” he said. Our soldiers, our artillery, our drones to the occupier. “
He also said Ukrainian forces were adding up their “forces” along the national border and along the entire front line near Kharkiv.
“We will invariably destroy the occupier in a way that thwarts any Russian offensive intent,” the 46-year-old leader wrote.
“Everything related to the stability of our soldiers and all those who occupy a position now protects the position of the whole of Ukraine.
“It is vital that our partners, our infantrymen and Ukraine’s stability offer them supplies in a timely manner. Really at the right time. The package that’s really helping is the weapons brought to Ukraine, and not just the announcement of the package. “
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Joe Biden following the announcement of a $400 million military package through the United States.
The Ukrainian president said the aid would “help save civilian lives” and troops on the front line.
“The United States maintains its leadership role in supporting Ukraine and this is important,” he added.
This is the third tranche of aid to Ukraine since Congress approved more investment in late April, after months of stalemate.
It includes:
The weapons are shipped through the Presidential Withdrawal Authority, which uses systems and ammunition from existing U. S. stockpiles so they can be temporarily sent to the war front.
By Deborah Haynes, Editor-in-Chief Security and Defense, Vovchansk
Terror and grief were the dominant feelings of dozens of mostly elderly men and women who fled the city of Vovchansk, on the border with Ukraine, after the attack by Russian forces.
Gathered at an evacuation point on the outskirts of the city, they said it was the heaviest fighting they had ever witnessed since the full-scale invasion.
Sky News tracked down two volunteer rescuers, who drove a white van into the trailer to evacuate citizens.
Smoke hung on the road along the way; We were told that all roads leading to Vovchansk were under attack by Russian artillery, rockets and drones.
One of the attacks targeted a chimney in a forest bordering the road, sending clouds of smoke into the air.
The streets of the community we entered were completely empty.
We arrived at a bungalow complex.
A group of five elderly men and women sat on a bench on the side of the street, content to stand still.
The rescue team stopped on a street where they had been told that four citizens were asking to be evacuated.
There was a knock at the door, but no one answered. Instead, a gray-haired little girl who lives in the space next door opened her green door and told rescuers that her neighbors had already left.
Distraught, Valentina, 74, planned to leave, but rescuers managed to convince her.
“Let’s go, don’t stay here, it’s dangerous,” they said.
Suddenly, there was a burst that seemed to replace his mind.
Gathering some undeniable belongings, he left his house and got into the minibus.
The mayor said about 500 citizens of the city had been evacuated since the attack began, but said the city’s population was 3,000 and many more had still left the city.
Evacuation operations will continue.
By Sean Bell, Military Analyst
At five o’clock in the morning, the Russians introduced a shocking attack in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, killing two civilians and wounding at least five others.
One of the targets was the Ukrainian border network of Vovchansk, located just five kilometers from the Russian border, and the attack prompted the evacuation of 3,000 residents.
Reportedly, Russian forces were deployed approximately 1 km ahead of the deployment of Ukrainian reinforcements.
So why has Russia opened a front in the war?
There are two main reasons for this new Russian attack.
First of all, the Russian border town of Belgorod is a logistical hub for the activity of the Russian army and is attacked with artillery from Ukrainian territory.
President Putin has long promised to create a buffer zone to put Ukrainian forces out of artillery range, which would restrict attacks on the border town.
Second, while top analysts say Russia would struggle to capture Kharkiv, the attack forces Ukraine to spread its limited resources across a broader front, making it more vulnerable to additional attacks.
Russia’s precedent remains the Donbass, the number one target of what it calls its special military operation.
The Russian military is notoriously exploiting the window of opportunity created by Ukraine’s weapons shortage and is reportedly preparing a primary offensive by the summer.
Ukraine’s strategy appears to be to buy time in industrial territory, charging Russia a maximum price for every meter of land confiscated, pending the arrival of the next delivery of aid from the Western army.
But momentum and initiative are critical elements in war, and Russia possesses them at this juncture. Ukraine is in retreat and could face some very difficult weeks on the battlefield.
British Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said last week that Ukraine has the right to use UK-supplied weapons against targets in Russia.
Referring to the comments, Russia’s most sensible security official, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that the West is opposed to giving the green light to Ukrainian attacks on its territory with Western-supplied weapons.
After what Moscow called threats from France, Britain and the United States, Russia announced earlier this week that it would deploy tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise.
The exercises are aimed at determining Russia’s reaction to any attack on the country with Western-supplied weapons, Sanchez Medvedev said.
He said the Russian reaction would “only be directed at Kiev,” and personally directed at Lord Cameron.
“I don’t forget this guy very well. I worked with him when he became Prime Minister. An ordinary, boring Brit. At the time, he was gleefully stupid and looked like a young satan enjoying his acquired position,” he said. wrote on the messaging app Telegram, which was translated.
“In some circumstances, the reaction [to such attacks] will be directed only at Kyiv,” he added.
He added: “And only with traditional explosives, but also with a special type of weapon. “
As we reported that day, Russian forces introduced the first level of an operation in Kharkiv.
Heavy fighting erupted in parts of the northeastern region, with Ukrainian officials claiming Russian troops had set up shop within a kilometer.
The leading U. S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said evidence indicates the first Russian strikes were carried out for reconnaissance purposes and not as part of a primary crusade to the city of Kharkiv.
It also suggests five goals that Russia could try to achieve with this operation:
The ISW added that Russia was unlikely to take the city of Kharkiv.
Open-source data suggests Moscow’s forces do not have enough troops in close quarters, the think tank added.
“If the Russian command had intended to capture the city of Kharkiv, then Russian forces would probably have attacked the west and northwest of the city of Kharkiv as well,” he said.
He also explained that Russia’s use of its airspace for the Kharkiv attacks highlights the “urgent need” for the United States to supply more long-range air defenses to Ukraine.
“Ukraine would be better able to protect Kharkiv Oblast if Ukrainian air protectors could intercept Russian aircraft in Russian airspace before dropping their glide bombs,” he added.