Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says the situation in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where Russian forces have been pressing with a large-scale assault since last week, continues to be very difficult, but it is "generally under control.
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Zelenskiy traveled to Kharkiv on May 16, where he met with military chiefs, including Ukraine’s top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, Khortytsia Air Force Base chief Yuriy Sodol, and General Mykhaylo Drapatiy, the newly appointed chief of the Ukrainian defense on the Kharkiv front, with whom he discussed the situation in Vovchansk and Lyptsi, the two areas where heavy fighting has been under way for the past several days.
"As of today, the situation in the Kharkiv region is generally under control, our soldiers are inflicting significant losses on the occupier. But the front there remains extremely difficult -- and we are strengthening our units," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
Vovchansk and Lyptsi, two small towns just 5-10 kilometers away from the border with Russia, have been pounded relentlessly by Russian artillery since Moscow's troops kicked off the offensive in the area on May 10, prompting the evacuation of up to 9,000 civilians. Both towns are also located near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city with a pre-war population of 1.4 million, which is also an important economic powerhouse.
Military analysts, however, have said that Russian forces do not appear to have the capacity to threaten Kharkiv, with the American Institute for the Study of War, assessing that Moscow's troops advanced no more than 8 kilometers inside Ukraine. Kharkiv is located some 35 kilometers from the border.
British intelligence, meanwhile, has suggested that the Russian push had the primary goal of stretching Kyiv's already depleted forces from other battlefields in the east.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported on May 16 that Ukrainian forces thwarted the plans of the Russian Army to drive deep into the depths of Vovchansk and gain a foothold there. Russian forces tried to storm the area 23 times during the day, according to Radio Donbas Realia, a Radio Liberty project.
Ukrainian units during the day kept the enemy under fire and "as actions continue, the situation is under control," the General Staff said.
U.S. General Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, told journalists in Brussels that Russia does not have sufficient forces on the ground to make a major breakthrough in Ukraine.
"The Russians don't have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough.... More to the point, they don't have the skill and the ability to do it," he said.
"I've been in very close contact with our Ukrainian colleagues, and I'm confident that they will hold the line," Cavoli said after Ukraine's military briefed NATO's top officers.
Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko earlier on May 16 accused Russian forces of detaining and killing civilians who had not managed to evacuate from Vovchansk in time.
"Russian troops attempting to gain a foothold in the town, did not allow residents to evacuate; people began to be kidnapped and driven to basements," Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
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Ukrainians Scramble To Evacuate Vovchansk As Russia Advances In Kharkiv Region
"One of the Vovchansk residents tried to flee on foot, refused to follow the commands of the invaders -- the Russians killed him," Klimenko wrote.
Early on May 16, an air raid alert was declared for Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and several other regions, with the Ukrainian Air Force warning that there was a threat of ballistic missiles fired from Russia.
Russian forces have regularly attacked civilians in Ukraine's regions, killing numerous people, including children, and causing huge damage to civilian and energy infrastructure.
On May 15, two people were killed by Russian shelling in Dnipro, local authorities reported.
Moscow-installed authorities in the Russian-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine said late on May 16 that Ukrainian shelling killed four women. The women, ranging in age from roughly 38 to 72, were killed near a public transport stop near a school, they said on Telegram.