Kremlin denies offensive on Ukraine's northeast failed

AFP , Wednesday 17 Jul 2024

The Kremlin on Wednesday denied a major ground offensive on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region had failed after Russian officials said they would seal off border villages to protect civilians from Ukrainian shelling.

Tourists visit Dvortsovaya Square in front of a giant banner depicting Peter the Great, the founder of Saint Petersburg, in central Saint Petersburg on June 9, 2024. AFP

Russia in May launched a surprise assault into the Kharkiv region, which sits across the border from Russia's Belgorod region, in a bid to push Ukrainian forces back and establish what President Vladimir Putin called a "security zone".

But on Tuesday, Belgorod's regional governor announced that civilian access to 14 Russian border villages would be restricted given the ongoing intensity of Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

Asked on Wednesday whether that decision meant the Kharkiv offensive had failed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "No, it doesn't."

"This operation is ongoing, it will continue until it has been successfully completed," he told reporters in a briefing call.

"But while it has not been completed, barbaric attacks by the Kyiv regime on civilian infrastructure continue. To take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of the population, new practices are being introduced," he added.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Tuesday that over 200 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded in the region since Moscow launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.

He said entry to the border area would be limited from July 23 to men wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets who have passed through checkpoints.

Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russian territory throughout the conflict, which it says are justified responses to Moscow's aggression.

On Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone killed a married couple in a car in the Russian village of Tserkovnyi, about eight kilometers (five miles) from the border in the Belgorod region, Gladkov said.

Last week, Ukrainian strikes in the Belgorod region killed four people in one 24-hour period, while 20 more were injured.

Ukraine was forced to scramble troops to reinforce the Kharkiv area after Moscow launched the offensive in May.

Russian troops have since claimed several modest territorial gains in the eastern Donetsk region, and independent military analysts said Russia's real goal could have been to force Ukraine to divert troops away from other areas of the front line.