Kyiv on May 12 said “all areas” of the Kharkiv region's border area are under Russian assault after Ukraine's top military commander said “decisive battles” were being fought there, while the Kremlin assailed what it called a Ukrainian attack on an apartment building in the Russian city of Belgorod.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram that Russian forces “continue to fire on the civilian population.”
“As of today, the number of mass artillery and air strikes have increased. Vovchansk, Lyptsi, and all the points of the northern border are under enemy fire almost around the clock,” he said, adding that the “situation is difficult.”
Continuous Shelling And Fear Of Repeated Occupation: The Evacuation Of Ukraine's Vovchansk
Vovchansk, a border town with a prewar population of about 17,500, has become the focal point of Russia’s latest offensive as the Kremlin’s forces attempt to take settlements just east of Kharkiv -- Ukraine’s second-largest city with some 1.4 million people.
Ukraine's top military commander has said that his forces have prevented Russian troops from breaking through defenses, as large-scale evacuations of civilians continue in the country's northeast.
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"Units of the defense forces are fighting fierce defensive battles," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy wrote on Telegram on May 12. "The attempts of the Russian invaders to break through our defenses have been stopped."
However, Syrskiy echoed warnings from Kyiv about the dire situation Ukraine faces, with Russia boosting offensive efforts in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the eastern Donetsk region.
Syrskiy said that Russia was attacking the front at several points with the aim of advancing deep into Ukrainian territory.
"The situation is difficult, but the defense forces of Ukraine are doing everything to hold defensive lines and positions, inflict damage on the enemy," Syrskiy said.
On May 12, Synehubov said more than 4,000 people had been evacuated from areas where "there is a threat to the lives and health of civilians" after fighting intensified in the territory bordering Russia.
Russia launched a fresh assault on the region on May 10 and the following day claimed it had captured five villages. On May 12, Russian forces claimed they had taken four more villages.
Ukraine has said it is battling for control in the affected areas and appears to have struck back with strikes in Russia itself.
Russian officials said multiple people were killed and 20 injured on May 12 when fragments of a downed Tochka-U TRC missile fired by Ukraine hit an apartment block in Belgorod, a Russian regional capital near the border with the Kharkiv region.
Varying death tolls have been given in the incident, ranging from at least two to seven people.
"The city of Belgorod and the Belgorod region were subjected to massive shelling by the armed forces of Ukraine," said Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who added that more people could be buried in the rubble of the apartment building.
On his Telegram page, Gladkov posted what he said were video and images of the collapsed apartment building.
Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman quoted Dmitry Peskov as saying President Vladimir Putin had been briefed about the "barbaric" attack on the apartment block.
While Moscow itself denies targeting civilians, Russian air strikes have frequently hit hospitals, schools, and residential areas with devastating effect, with thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv has not commented on the incident in Belgorod, which has often has been the target of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks.
Battlefield claims on either side cannot immediately be verified.
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Hundreds In Kharkiv Flee Their Homes To Escape Russian Shelling
During his nightly video address on May 11, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy raised alarms about frontline conditions in the war against Russia, highlighting the fighting in the Kharkiv region while also saying the situation in the eastern Donetsk region was "especially tense."
The Ukrainian General Staff early on May 11 cited more than 100 areas of fighting in the previous 24 hours, in addition to overnight missile and drone attacks, hinting at the intensity of the Russian campaign 27 months into the full-scale invasion.
Russia has also expanded its use of advanced rockets and missiles in addition to barrages from unmanned attack drones, and recently has targeted power infrastructure far from the front lines.