National forces repel Russians in battle Kharkiv

The governor of Ukraine’s second city said troops had repelled an advance that broke through the edge of the city early Sunday.

A Russian armoured personnel carrier ablaze in Kharkiv on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Russian forces attempting to storm Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, have been pushed back to its outskirts after a day of intense fighting and street battles.

Regional governor Oleh Synyebuhov wrote on the messaging service Telegram that Ukrainian forces had repelled an advance that broke through the edge of the city in the early hours. “Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! The armed forces, the police, and the defence forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy,” he wrote.

Residents reported shelling and gunfire in several areas outside the city centre. Videos on social media showed armed Russian soldiers walking through what looked to be residential areas alongside armoured vehicles.

Video shared by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, showed light armoured vehicles and military lorries with a “Z” painted on the side — a marking that has been associated with Russian troops involved in the invasion — driving fast down a street in a residential area.

Until Sunday (Monday AEDT), Russians had remained on the outskirts of the city, which is 19km from the border and has a population of 1.4 million. Some residents, many of whom had spent three days underground, were managing to leave the city by packed trains to escape to western Ukraine.

A video showed people walking through underground railway tunnels, seemingly trying to navigate the city while avoiding the fighting.

Just before an explosion in the Saltivka district, one woman recalled to the BBC how her neighbour had told her children what to do if there was a blast. She said: “My hairs were standing on end at the thought that three-year-old children were having to be taught what to do during shelling.

“One young girl kept waking up her mum. She’d sit up crying: ‘Mum, I’m scared, please save me, save me.’ She only calmed down by the morning after her mum had sat holding her all night.”

Dmitry Shabanov, a university professor, told the BBC the “operation to counter some saboteurs who had entered Kharkiv was just next to our yard”. “We are staying in our house with a cellar, it’s my wife and me, two sons who are 7 and 11, and my 80-year-old mum.”

To the south of Ukraine, Russian forces were also continuing their attempt to cut the country off from the sea by advancing east and west along the coast from Crimea. Cutting off Ukraine’s access to its ports would strangle its economy. It would also create a land border ­between Russia and Crimea, which are connected only by a bridge.

The Ukrainian embassy in Turkey tweeted a video that it claimed showed a Bayraktar TB2 drone destroying a column of Russian vehicles. Online experts geolocated it to an area near Kherson, 300km south of Kyiv, where heavy fighting had taken place on the weekend. Ukrainian forces say the city is now fully under their control.

Meanwhile, the advance on Kyiv had stalled on the city’s outskirts, 19km from the centre. Officials and Western diplomats said Russia looked to be facing logistics and supply issues. A video from outside the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, showed burnt out military vehicles abandoned on a dusty road.

Thousands of Ukrainians have volunteered to fight. Officials said that they would be releasing prisoners with military experience who wanted to fight. This will raise fears about lawlessness.

“I’m scared to go outside,” said Alena, 31, who stayed in the city while a lot of her friends left. “I’m scared that there will be looting.”

THE TIMES