Ukraine evacuates thousands of civilians as fighting rages in Kharkiv region near border with Russia

Fierce fighting has raged for a second day on the fringes of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region as thousands more civilians were evacuated from frontier towns within a few miles of the nearest Russian soldiers.

Moscow claimed it had captured five villages all within three miles of the Russia-Ukraine border, which runs along the eastern side of Kharkiv region.

But the region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov, disputed the Kremlin’s claim, saying that active fighting continued on the territory of all five of the villages.

“We clearly understand what forces the enemy is using in the north of our territory. Certainly, the escalation can grow, the pressure can increase, it can strengthen its military units, its military presence,” he said.

“As of now the enemy keeps pressing in the north of our region. Our forces have repelled nine attacks.”

Russia launched the armoured incursion early on Friday, an attack on a new front that may presage a broader push into the Kharkiv region or aim to draw away overstretched Ukrainian forces from where Moscow’s offensive is focused further to the east.

The attack, led by small groups of infantrymen and supported by armoured vehicles, is being carried out across two sections of the border with the Kharkiv region, largely in areas known as the “grey zone”, which are parts of Ukrainian land controlled by neither side.

One of the advances appears to be a concerted push towards a small town called Vovchansk, less than four miles from the Russian border.

Tamaz Gambarshvili, the head of the military administration for the town, said it had come under “intense shelling” throughout Saturday.

He claimed Russia fired more than 20 highly destructive guided aerial bombs, adding that “there were both wounded and dead”.

At least two men were confirmed dead in Vovchansk after a Russian shell hit their house, Mr Syniehubov, the governor, later confirmed.

He added that authorities had evacuated more than 2,500 people from the frontier area and that the effort continued.

Less than 20 miles to the north, Russian forces appeared to have advanced around a small town called Oliinykove, according to an updated map published by DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker with ties to the military.

Oliinykove is around two and a half miles from the border with Russia and just 25 miles from the Kharkiv region’s namesake capital, which is home to around 1.3 million citizens and has been fiercely bombed by the Russians this year.

Mr Syniehubov said there was no imminent danger to the city, Ukraine’s second largest behind Kyiv, and there was no need to begin evacuating.

Kyiv has been on the back foot on the battlefield for months as Russian troops have slowly advanced mainly in the Donetsk region to the south, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortages of troop manpower and artillery shells.

But until now, the fighting has largely been confined to areas southeast of the Kharkiv region, including Donetsk, neighbouring Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Russia has, however, been massing tens of thousands of soldiers around the “grey zones” in the Kharkiv region over the past few months, according to Ukrainian military officials.

Kyiv has rushed in reinforcements to deal with the incursion and Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern command, said on Saturday that his forces had managed to contain Russia’s forces in the borderlands where it is unclear who has control.

“The enemy is localized in the ‘grey zone’, it is not expanding,” he said. “However, there is the question of finally destroying it and catching it in the tree lines where it could hide.”