Ukraine reports Russian ground invasion on Kharkiv | DW News

Ukraine says that Russia has launched a new ground offensive on the country's Northeastern border advancing about 1 kilometer inside Ukraine officials say that there was massive shelling in the town of V chonk near the city of harke Ukraine has rushed reinforcements to the region to shore up local defenses Ukrainian forces are evacuating residents at least one civilian we understand has been killed in the shelling Ukraine's President zalinski says that the military had anticipated the attack he says quote a fierce battle is underway all right for more I want to cross now to our correspondent Nick Connelly he is in keev Nick what do you make of this latest news coming from the harke region what's going on Brent it's really difficult to get a handle on the situation there the geography is pretty complex you've got fighting going on near vchan which is about 70 km Northeast of khv just on that r Frontier but you also have reports fighting directly north of khv in the kind of villages along the border there which are about themselves 50 km away uh as the crow flies from vunk and uh then reports of some some other Villages also affected slightly further away so this is a big area uh this is a reminder that you know Ukraine has a very very long border about 1,000 kilometers with Russia so even away from the front lines there is lots of territory that needs to be controlled and there had been expectation that something might happen because Russia was building up troops in that part of the country and uh you just a couple of hours ago it really seemed like maybe they'd be rolling in and trying to take K give Ukraine's Second City that doesn't seem to be the case now we've actually had a report recently from the regional Governor saying that uh Russia hasn't been able to take any territory they've been pushed back we're not 100% sure if that is the conclusive answer there's lots of reports of basically Russian sabur groups crossing the border and operating kind of chaotically behind the Ukrainian lines lots of questions in Ukraine tonight how that was possible why this border was not better closed off why they weren't minefields why they able to cross and it just really kind of reminds us of the chaos last summer when you had Ukrainian backed Russian Exile groups doing the same thing on the Russian side of the Border it really seems like this kind of chaotic kind of Border raid situation and we can't really tell what it's going for now yeah we know that Ukrainian forces are already struggling to hold the line in the eastern part of of the country this could look like an attempt by Russia to start a two-front war but as you say we don't know I mean could this then be the major Russian assault that Ukraine has been bracing for well I just came back from the front lines in the East couple of weeks ago and when you ask people were they you know the soldiers there or the locals are you expecting some big Russian Advance some push they say to you it's already started it's been way more intensive in the last couple months since Ukraine started getting Less in the way of Western weapons and the Russians saw that chance so they didn't really see much chance for more but certainly there is an interpretation that this could be about diversionary tactics Russia trying to force Ukraine to send troops to the khv region to weaken those defense in the East especially while it's still Waits For Those $60 billion of us Aid to reach the front lines uh and we have seen lots of talk in Russian State media about basically flattening kkv trying to kind of create Panic amongst the civilian population trying to force people to leave that City to give up and to basically move further away from the Russian border so there's definitely a sense the Russians want people to be scared they have basically announced this in a way that they wouldn't really have if this was just about the military side and for now it is a very difficult situation they've had basically being an air raid alarm for the best part of 10 hours there so it is extraordinar difficult for the locals and lots of people who are closer to the Border not necessar in K City itself but close to the Border are definitely packing their cases and leaving W's Nick car with the latest tonight from keev Ukraine Nick as always thank you

Channel: DW News

Views: 372,488

Keywords: DW News, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Kharkiv, Spring Offensive, Ukraine War, President Zelenskyy, Russia

Id: pTiqKucRUSc

Length: 3min 52sec (232 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024