Putin assures that Russia has no plans to take Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city

The Russian president, Vladimir Putinassured today that the Russian army has no plans to take the city of Kharkiv, capital of the homonymous region in the northeast of Ukraine and the second most important city in the country.

In statements at the end of his visit to ChinaPutin blamed Kiev for the current Russian offensive in Kharkiv and noted that Russian troops are trying to create a security belt to protect Russian border regions that are continually attacked by Ukrainian artillery.

Specifically, he denounced that Ukrainian artillery is targeting residential areas in the center of the city of Belgorod, the hardest hit since the beginning of the Russian military campaign.

Nearly twenty people died on Sunday in the attack on a residential building in the city of Belgorod.

”Civilians live there. Everything is evident. “They shoot at the center of the city, against residential areas,” he pointed.

Russia expands the war front by 70 kilometers, according to kyiv

Precisely today, the head of the Ukrainian Army, Oleksandr Sirski, took stock of the offensive started a week ago by Russia in the Kharkiv region.

Sirski has denounced that Russian attacks against the Ukrainian side of that border area have expanded the war front by another 70 kilometers.

“The enemy has expanded the zone of active hostilities by almost 70 kilometers, to try to force us to use an additional number of reserve brigades,” The Ukrainian military official said in a statement published on his social networks.

According to the Ukrainian general, the Sever (north) group of the Russian Armed Forces deployed a significant number of combat units for its offensive that attacked ahead of schedule, realizing that Ukraine had begun to accumulate forces to defend the area.

“They couldn’t break our defenses,” said Sirski, who warned however that “intense fighting” will continue on that new front.

Zelensky acknowledges Russian progress in Kharkiv

For his part, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, acknowledged today that the situation in Kharkiv is very complicated, but that Kyiv It cannot be allowed to lose that city at the hands of the Russian enemy.

Regarding the level of penetration of Russia In the north of the region, Zelensky assured that, despite having advanced into Ukrainian territory, Russian forces have not reached the first fortified defense line built by Ukraine in the area.

In statements to Ukrainian media cited by Ukrainska Pravda, Zelensky stated that fortifications cannot be built in an area as exposed to Russian fire as the one immediately next to the border.

The Ukrainian authorities have been criticized these days for not having built enough fortifications in the Kharkiv border area.

The Institute for the Study of War in Washington (ISW) estimates the distance that Russia has managed to penetrate into Ukrainian territory in the cross-border offensive it launched last Friday at 8 kilometers.