KYIV (AFP/Reuters) – Nearly 10,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region since a ground attack launched by Russian forces on May 10, the regional governor said.
The assault may only be the first wave of a wider offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Over a week after its launch, “a total of 9,907 people have been evacuated,” governor Oleg Synegubov said.
They were fleeing Russian soldiers who managed to advance between five to 10 kilometers (three to six miles) along the northeastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian forces.
Synegubov said Ukraine’s armed forces had repelled two attempts to break through defenses overnight.
For Ukrainian gun commander Oleksandr Kozachenko, the long-awaited U.S. ammunition can’t come fast enough as he and his comrades struggle to hold off relentless Russian attacks.
His unit’s U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer, which once hurled 100 shells a day at the encroaching enemy, is now often reduced to fewer than 10.
“It’s a luxury if we can fire 30 shells.”
America says it’s rushing ammunition and weapons to Ukraine following the delayed approval of a $61 billion aid package by Congress last month. As of early May, though, two artillery units visited by Reuters on the eastern frontline said they were still waiting for a boost in deliveries and operating at a fraction of the rate they need to hold back the Russians.
Gunners with Kozachenko’s 148th Separate Artillery Brigade and the 43rd Artillery Brigade, both in the Donetsk region, said they were desperate for more 155mm rounds for their Western cannons, which had given them an edge over Russia earlier in the war.
Resurgent Russian forces, which significantly outnumber and outgun the Ukrainian defenders, have been mounting multiple attacks across the eastern Donbas region in recent months and along the country’s northeastern border last week.
The drive has marked an inflection point in the conflict spawned by Russia’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago.
Russia has gained more territory in 2024 than it lost control of during Ukraine’s much-hyped counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, according to Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with Black Bird Group, a Finnish-based volunteer group that analyses satellite imagery and social media content from the war.
A U.S. media report has said that a number of American allies within NATO are moving closer to sending troops into Ukraine to train its armed forces.
The New York Times reported on Friday that many U.S. military contractors are already in Ukraine to repair Washington-supplied weapons systems.
The Ukrainian government has asked the U.S. and NATO to “help train 150,000 new recruits” inside Ukraine, which is facing a troops shortage in its war against Russia, the report said.  such a flow of weapons to Kiev will only prolong the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced the West for its ban on using Western-donated arms to strike targets inside Russia, saying the West is “afraid” of both Russian and Ukrainian defeat.
In an interview with AFP on Friday, Zelensky launched a rare attack on Western countries for supplying Kiev with long-range arms but at the same time imposing a strict ban on using them to strike targets inside Russia.
“They can fire any weapons from their territory at ours. This is the biggest advantage that Russia has. We can’t do anything to their systems, which are located on the territory of Russia, with Western weapons,” he said in the interview which aired on Saturday.