The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, received today in the country’s capital the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who traveled by surprise to kyiv to reaffirm Washington’s support in the midst of the Russian offensive on the new front opened on Friday across Russia in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
At that same event, Zelensky again stressed the importance of weapons arriving as soon as possible, and He asked Blinken for two additional Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to protect the Kharkiv region and its capital of the same name.
Kharkiv is, after kyiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. The Russian troops who crossed the border on Friday are a few dozen kilometers from the city.
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‘If we have enough weapons we will have enough people’
“If we have enough weapons we will have enough people,” said Yermak when asked about the issue during his participation in the Democracy Summit being held today and tomorrow in Copenhagen, in which leaders such as the president of the Commission also participated. European, Ursula von der Leyen.
If we have enough weapons we will have enough people.
Also participating in the summit, with a recorded video message, was the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umérov, who He reviewed the situation on the front and outlined for those present the most urgent needs of his country in weapons.
“The enemy’s offensive actions have intensified significantly, in several areas of the front the Russians are trying to overcome our defensive lines using dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and waves of infantry attacks,” Umerov said.
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More Russian advances
At the northern end of the town of Vovchansk, the most important in the border area, troops from both sides constantly exchange fire while Ukrainian forces try to “cleanse” the municipality of Russian sabotage groupsaccording to the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, Oleg Siniegubov.
A few kilometers to the west, on the other axis opened by Russia when crossing into the Kharkiv region from the Russian Belgorod oblast last Friday, Ukrainian troops withdrew in the face of enemy advance from some of their positions in the village of Lukiantsi to avoid suffering casualties, as recognized by the Kiev General Staff in one of its parts.
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The Ukrainian General Staff also reported Russian offensive actions on the Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk fronts, in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russia has been gaining ground for months.
President Zelensky has warned that Russia’s opening of a new front in Kharkiv seeks to disperse Ukrainian troops and force them to neglect other theaters of operations.
The Institute for the Study of War in Washington (ISW) sees the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region as an attempt to create a security zone that would distance Ukrainian troops from the Russian border region of Belgorod, which is constantly attacked by Ukraine for months.
A new front in the Sumi region?
Budanov denied that Russia is achieving “significant successes” in that border area and warned that Moscow has similar actions prepared in the neighboring region of Sumi, in northeastern Ukraine and also bordering the Federation.
According to the head of the GUR, Russia has small groups of troops deployed on its side of the border ready to attack Sumi when conditions are met.
Regarding the situation of the civilian population in the north of Kharkiv, Regional authorities reported that the number of displaced people from the border towns attacked by Russia now rises to more than 7,500, including more than 500 children and about 200 disabled people.
Also during the day on Tuesday, two civilians lost their lives as a result of Russian attacks in the north of the Kharkiv region.
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