This is a fairly negative signal for the Kremlin.

The Russian army announced on Friday that it had sent reinforcements to the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.

In response to an apparently successful breakthrough by kyiv forces in this area bordering Russia.

kyiv said on Thursday that it had regained some 700 km2 in this region of northeastern Ukraine in recent days, in particular the city of Balakliïa, as well as around twenty localities.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from Brussels that the deployment of reinforcements by Moscow shows that Russia is paying "a huge price".

The Russian Defense Ministry, which did not comment on the subject, nevertheless announced to Russian news agencies the deployment of reinforcements in this direction, broadcasting a video showing armored vehicles, howitzers and trucks driving in large numbers on roads not geolocated.

It did not issue a statement detailing or commenting on these deployments.

“Fierce fighting” in progress

A senior official of the occupation administration set up by Moscow in areas controlled by the Russian army, Vitali Gantchev, told Russian television channel Rossiya 24 on Friday that "fierce fighting" was underway around the city of Balakliïa, which kyiv said on Thursday it had reconquered.

“We no longer control Balakliïa.

Attempts to dislodge Ukrainian forces are underway, but the fighting there is fierce and our troops are held up on the outskirts” of the town, he said.

According to him, heavy fighting is also taking place near the town of Shevchenkové, still in the Kharkiv region.

“There too, the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to break through the defenses.

Reserves from Russia have been sent there, our troops are fighting back,” said Vitali Gantchev.

The road from Kharkiv towards the southeast, towards Balakliïa, was open to traffic on Friday morning, noted an AFP team, an area that the Ukrainian army seems to have reconquered during fighting in recent days.

Streak of success for Kyiv

Many civilian cars were circulating, as well as military vehicles.

Queues were also visible at several checkpoints.

Kharkiv, capital of the region of the same name and second city of Ukraine, is located in the northeast of the country, just on the border with Russia, and resists since the beginning of the invasion of February 24 Russian efforts to conquer her.

In addition to the breakthrough in this region, kyiv also claimed Thursday a series of successes in the South and East, claiming to have taken over territories and many localities.

If consolidated, these recent Ukrainian gains, together with those claimed in the south and east, are the most significant for Ukraine since the withdrawal of Russian troops from around kyiv in late March.

In the Donbass, a mining basin in eastern Ukraine where the heaviest fighting of the war has taken place in recent months, kyiv said on Thursday it had advanced two to three kilometers near Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and recaptured the village of Ozerne.

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World

War in Ukraine: Ammunition stockpiles on hold and billions of dollars in support

  • World

  • War in Ukraine

  • Volodymyr Zelensky

  • Russia

  • Vladimir Poutine