Russia presses offensive into Ukraine but hold off key city

AFP | Moscow 

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Russian forces pressed ahead yesterday with an offensive into northeast Ukraine but President Vladimir Putin said there were no current plans to occupy the key city of Kharkiv.

On a trip to China, Putin said the latest assault was direct retaliation for Ukraine’s shelling of Russia’s border regions and his country was trying to create a “security zone”.

“This is their fault because they have shelled and continue to shell residential neighbourhoods in border areas,” Putin told reporters.

He added there was no intention, at this stage, to take Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border. More than one million people still live there.

Russia launched the surprise offensive into Ukraine’s northeast on May 10, sending thousands of troops across the border and unleashing artillery fire on several settlements.

Both countries said Russian troops were still advancing, but Ukraine warned heavy fighting lay ahead. Russia’s defence ministry said its army had “liberated 12 settlements in the Kharkiv region over the last week... and continues to advance deep into enemy defences.”

Russian forces took 278 square kilometres (107 square miles) -- their biggest gains in a yearand-a-half -- between May 9 and 15, AFP has calculated using data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Most has been in the northeast, though its troops have also advanced in southern Ukraine.

‘Heavy fighting’

The Ukrainian governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubov, said Russian forces were trying to surround Vovchansk, an almost deserted town which had a prewar population of around 18,000. “The enemy has actually started to destroy the town.

It is not just dangerous to be there, but impossible,” Synegubov told a briefing. He said Ukrainian troops were resisting, but warned Russia was gaining ground near Lukyantsi, a village around 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kharkiv city. Kyiv pulled its troops back from that area this week amid heavy fire and has rushed in reinforcements.