Russia claims to have captured five border towns in Kharkiv amid new offensive

(CNN) — Russian troops claimed to have captured five villages in the Kharkiv region on the Ukrainian border in a new offensive, while Ukrainian officials said they were repelling the attacks and “fighting is ongoing.”

Russia launched its surprise cross-border attack on Friday and carried out two strikes inside northern Ukraine this Friday, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a “new wave of retaliatory actions” by Russia.

The exact objective is unclear, but Moscow may be trying to create a buffer zone to reduce Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory or try to weaken and distract Kiev’s already stretched forces.

In a statement, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that a new military group called Sever (North) had “liberated” several villages, a term denoting Russia’s refusal to grant Ukrainian statehood.

“As a result of offensive operations, units of the Sever Group of Forces have liberated Borisovka, Ogurtsovo, Pletenevka, Pilnya and Streletchya,” the statement said. Russian troops also captured the village of Keramik in the Donetsk region, the statement said. further south.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they continued their efforts to repel increasing Russian attacks, while hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were evacuated from the northern Kharkiv region.

Oleh Sinylyubov, head of Ukraine’s Kharkiv regional military administration, raised questions in a statement on Saturday that five villages in the Kharkiv region had been captured.

“Heavy fighting continues in Strylecha, Pylina, Borisivka, in the area of ​​Olynyakov and Ohritsev. Fighting continues in the area of ​​settlements that were actually in the ‘gray zone’ (…) There is no threat of ground operations to Kharkiv. The defense forces are making every possible effort to maintain their position. All government agencies are working on the ground,” Sinihubov said.

The gray area represents territory currently disputed and not under the full control of Russia or Ukraine.

At least three people were killed as a result of Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region overnight, according to the head of the region’s military administration.

Russia’s recent efforts have focused primarily on the east, where it has taken advantage of Ukrainian manpower and weapons shortages to make small gains. His forces attacked the Kharkiv region after a full-scale offensive began in 2022, but were repulsed in a Ukrainian counter-offensive the same year.

In another development, the Volgograd oil refinery, southern Russia’s largest, caught fire briefly after a Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday night, according to the region’s governor.

“On the night of May 12, air defense and electronic warfare forces repelled an attack by unmanned aerial vehicles in the area of ​​the Volgograd region,” Andrey Bocharov said in a post on Telegram.

“The fire at the Volgograd refinery occurred as a result of the crash of an unmanned aerial vehicle and the subsequent explosion,” he said.

The fire has already been extinguished and there are no casualties, he said.