Russian forces maintained their pressure on the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine on Saturday, particularly around Kharkiv in the northeast, where they are trying at all costs to increase their control, despite, according to kyiv, backhand on the field.
Violent explosions were heard overnight from Friday to Saturday in Kharkiv, the country’s second city, pounded for weeks by Russian artillery. On Friday, these bombings left at least one dead and several injured, according to the regional military administration.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the situation in this region, where Russian forces have refocused their offensive, was “difficult”. “But our military is achieving tactical success,” he said.
Because the military aid brought to kyiv has greatly increased since the beginning of the conflict and the effects are beginning to be seen on the ground where the Russian forces are sometimes in difficulty. This is particularly the case in Rouska Lozova, a village taken over by the Ukrainians north of Kharkiv, from where the Russian forces pounded the city, according to them. More than 600 residents have been evacuated from the village, which has been occupied for two months, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov nevertheless assured that the “special military operation” launched on February 24 “continued according to plan”, in an interview with the official Chinese agency New China published on Saturday. All its objectives “will be achieved despite the obstruction of our adversaries”, he added.
