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Security council secretary: Over 30,000 Russian troops involved in attack on Kharkiv Oblast

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Security council secretary: Over 30,000 Russian troops involved in attack on Kharkiv Oblast
Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery on the front line in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on Oct. 27, 2023. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)

More than 30,000 Russian troops are carrying out a renewed offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko said in an interview with AFP published on May 13.

Russian troops launched a new wave of attacks on May 10, mainly focusing on border settlements in Kharkiv Oblast.

Ukraine's General Staff said on May 13 that Russia has "tactical success" in the fight for Vovchansk, a town in northern Kharkiv Oblast. Urban combat was ongoing in the northern outskirts of the town, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

"According to their reports, the military is ready to repel (the attack), it is fighting hard. But there are quite a lot of Russians," Lytvynenko said.

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In total, Russia deployed around 50,000 soldiers on the border with Kharkiv Oblast before its offensive, he said.

There is currently no threat of an assault on the city of Kharkiv, Lytvynenko added, echoing earlier statements of the local authorities.

Russian forces failed to take Kharkiv in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion despite the fact that the city lies less than 30 kilometers from the Russian border.

Russia "would need years" to occupy Kharkiv, Oleksandr Pivnenko, the commander of Ukraine's National Guard, said amid the looming threat of renewed attack.

A total of 7,023 civilians in Kharkiv Oblast have been evacuated from their homes amid heavy fighting in the region, Syniehubov reported on May 14.

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The Kyiv Independent staff documented what it feels like to live and sleep in Kyiv, Ukraine, as Russia intensifies its drone and missile attacks on the city. Filmed over several weeks in June and July, our journalists take shelter in bathrooms, basements, and parking garages as explosions ring out overhead.

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