Russia advances in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in push to create buffer zone, Kyiv source says

Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region early on Friday, advancing one kilometer near the border town of Vovchansk in an effort to create a buffer zone, a senior military source said. The assault opens a new front in the war more than two years since Russia's full-scale invasion.

Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region early on Friday, advancing one kilometer near the border town of Vovchansk in an effort to create a buffer zone, a senior military source said.

The assault opens a new front in the war more than two years since Russia's full-scale invasion. Fighting in the border areas of the Kharkiv region continued and Kyiv has sent more forces to the area as reinforcements, the defence ministry said. "At approximately 5 a.m., there was an attempt by the enemy to break through our defensive line under the cover of armoured vehicles," the ministry said.

"As of now, these attacks have been repulsed; battles of varying intensity continue." A senior Ukrainian military source who declined to be named said that Russian forces were aiming to push the Ukrainian armed forces as far back as 10 kilometers from the Russian border and that Kyiv's forces were trying to hold them back.