A strong signal that Moscow is trying to open a new front: Kiev is sending military reinforcements to the border with Russia

Russian forces tried to push armored vehicles into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Friday and heavily shelled the area, Kiev said, in the strongest signal yet that Moscow is trying to open a new front in the war. more than two years ago, Reuters informs.

Ukraine repelled the armored attack, but fighting in border areas in the Kharkiv region continued and Kiev sent more forces to the area as reinforcements, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“Around 5 am, there was an attempt by the enemy to break through our defensive line with armored vehicles,” the ministry said. “For now, these attacks have been repelled; fighting of varying intensity continues”.

Although Russia’s offensive is focused on the Donetsk region, Kiev has recently noted that Moscow is massing troops near the Kharkiv region, a build-up that could hint at an imminent attack or seek to divert and block Ukraine’s depleted defensive forces.

Moscow’s forces advanced one kilometer into Kharkiv, near the city of Vovchansk, according to a senior military source quoted by Reuters.

According to the cited source, the Russian army wants to advance 10 kilometers into the region to create a buffer zone. Ukrainian troops are fighting to repulse the enemy’s attempts.

“Sabotage Groups”

Russian forces tried to cross the border into Ukraine with sabotage groups as they stepped up shelling of the city of Vovchansk in Ukraine’s (northeast) Kharkiv region, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Friday.

Synehubov said on Telegram that the attempts were repelled and that Ukrainian forces “confidently hold their positions and have not lost a single meter.”

Ukrainian authorities helped evacuate civilians from the city of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region and surrounding areas on Friday due to intensifying Russian shelling, a local official said.

“The majority leave using their own means of transport. But at the same time, together with the humanitarian center, we organize transportation for those who do not have cars,” Tamaz Gambarashvili, head of the military administration in Vovchansk, told Hromadske radio.

He also said that Russia did not have the resources to advance on the city of Kharkiv and that its actions at the border were a “challenge”.

Russian troops attacked the city of Kharkiv with an S-400 missile, from the territory of the Russian Belgorod region, according to the first information provided by the prosecutor’s office in the Kharkiv region, notes Ukrainska Pravda.

One of the two victims is a child.