“Over the past 24 hours, Russians massively shelled settlements of Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Izium and Kupyansk districts with guided aerial bombs and other weapons,” said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.
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It remained under Russian control for several months, before a swift Ukrainian offensive liberated the city in September, along with a number of other settlements in the region.
A local Ukrainian official said Thursday that substantial Russian reinforcements had turned the northern front of Kharkiv region into the “epicenter” of hostilities, “where the enemy is concentrating its main efforts.”
But Ukrainian authorities have not ordered an evacuation of this scale since October last year, when they launched an offensive to reclaim territories captured by Russian forces in Kherson and sought to protect civilians by removing them first.
In July, Serhii Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian spokesman for the Eastern Military Grouping, warned that Russia had dramatically bolstered its forces in the region.
“The enemy has concentrated a very powerful grouping on the Lyman-Kupyansk direction, with over 100,000 personnel, over 900 tanks, and over 370 MLRS (rocket launchers),” Cherevatyi said, adding that Russian forces were “putting everything into breaking through our defense.”
This strategy also aims to bring Russia closer to one of its stated goals – of securing all of the eastern Luhansk region and possibly reaching the natural barrier of the Oskil.
