Russian forces try to breach defensive lines near Kharkiv

Ukraine has sent in reinforcements and evacuated thousands of civilians as Russian forces seek to open up a new front in their invasion by advancing towards Ukraine's second-biggest city, Kharkiv, which sits around 25 miles from the Russia border.

- TOM WATLING

Ukraine's defence ministry reported that Russian troops had tried to "break through" defensive lines near a small town called Vovchansk, close to the border, at about 5am - after Moscow's forces had spent the night shelling the area with highly destructive guided aerial bombs. A secondary attack was also reported, closer to Kharkiv but along the border, near the town of Oliinykove. Footage posted by DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker, showed several Russian vehicles in flames near Oliinykove.

Ukrainian military officials have for weeks been warning that Russia was amassing tens of thousands of soldiers on the Russian side of the border in preparation to launch an assault. And as long-delayed US military aid started to arrive in Ukraine, officials and analysts predicted that Russian forces would try to grab as much land as possible while they still hold an artillery advantage, with the ratio estimated to be seven Russian shells to every Ukrainian one.

But the attack constitutes the first Russian ground assault in the direction of Kharkiv in almost two years. Ukrainian forces liberated the wider Kharkiv region in September 2022, a few months after the Russians invaded. Since then, the fighting has largely been contained to the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to the east and south.