Fierce fighting in Kharkiv region in Ukraine as Russia touts gains

Kyiv says its forces repulsing attacks, battling for control of settlements

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KYIV - Ukraine's military chief said on May 12 that his country's forces were facing a difficult situation in fighting in the Kharkiv region but that they were doing all they could to hold the line.

Russia launched the armoured incursion early on May 10, 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 in the east.

Fierce fighting raged on the fringes of Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region, as Moscow said it had captured at least nine villages, while Kyiv said it was repulsing the attacks and battling for control of the settlements.

"Units of the defence forces are fighting fierce defensive battles, the attempts of the Russian invaders to break through our defences have been stopped," Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief armed forces, wrote on Telegram.

of Ukraine's "The situation is difficult, but the defence forces of Ukraine are doing everything to hold defensive lines and positions, (and) inflict damage on the enemy." 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.