Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has cancelled his upcoming trips abroad as Russia takes further territory in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
The Ukrainian leader has “instructed that all international events involving him scheduled for the coming days be postponed and new dates coordinated,” presidential spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov said in a statement on Wednesday.
Zelensky was expected to travel to Spain and Portugal this week. The Ukrainian leader was scheduled to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and the country’s monarch, King Felipe, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
“We are grateful to our partners for their understanding,” Nykyforov said.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Russia launched a new offensive over the border into the Kharkiv region on Friday, quickly capturing a number of border villages and concentrating shelling on the city of Vovchansk, around three miles from internationally-recognized Russian territory.
A local official in Vovchansk said on Wednesday that Russian forces were taking up positions in the city. Ukraine’s military said late on Tuesday that it had pulled back its soldiers from certain parts of Vovchansk and another Kharkiv village to save the lives of its fighters.
Russia is “trying to gain a foothold in the northern part of the city,” Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson Dmytro Lazutkin said on Wednesday. Moscow is using small groups of infantry, some of which are already inside Vovchansk, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had captured two villages north of regional capital Kharkiv City, which sits southwest of Vovchansk. Hlyboke and Lukiantsy were seized by Russia’s northern group of troops, Moscow said in a statement.
Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city, and would be a very significant prize for Russia. It is not yet clear whether Moscow intends to capture Kharkiv, and Kyiv officials say the Kremlin wants to split Ukraine’s already scarce resources as fresh aid from the U.S. starts to arrive in the war-torn country. Shortly after Russia’s offensive in the northeast got underway, Ukraine declared it was quickly moving reserves to the border areas.
Russia is trying to prevent Ukraine from reinforcing its eastern and southern positions, Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of Ukrainian forces fighting in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, told Newsweek on Tuesday. Russian attacks across the frontline away from Kharkiv have increased, he said.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Kharkiv region, local authorities say. As of Wednesday morning, nearly 8,000 people have been relocated, Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said in a post to messaging app Telegram.
Update 5/15/24, 6:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
