Ukraine updates: Kharkiv residents near border relocate

Over 1700 people have been evacuated from the Ukraine-Russia border in Kharkiv region

Kharkiv's governor said that almost 1,800 people had been moved from areas near the front line for their own safety. Russia sought to reactivate what had been an almost frozen front on Friday. DW has more.

Over 1,700 civilians have been relocated from the border towns of the Kharkiv region a day after Russia mounted an armored ground offensive there, according to local officials.

Here's a look at the latest developments in Russia's war in Ukraine on Saturday, May 11:

Airstrike in Russia-occupied Luhansk kills 3, governor says

A Ukrainian strike killed three people, injured eight and triggered a large fire at an oil storage depot in Ukraine's occupied Luhansk region, the region's Russia-installed governor said.

Governor Leonid Pasechnik said eight people were hospitalized after the attack in the town of Rovenky, 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the regional centre of Luhansk.

Six suffered injuries from the blast, and two suffered from smoke inhalation, he wrote on Telegram.

It was the second such assault in three days. On Wednesday, an attack on an oil depot in the town of Luhansk injured five people.

Russian forces control most, but not all, of Luhansk region, one of four regions annexed by Russiain the aftermath of it launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Kharkiv governor says 1,775 people relocated

Hundreds of civilians were evacuated from Ukraine's border with Russia in the Kharkiv region, the local governor said on Saturday, a day after Moscow launched a renewed ground offensive there.

"A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated," governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.

He said that there had been Russian artillery and mortar attacks on 30 settlements in Kharkiv over the last 24 hours.

Kyiv sent reinforcements as fighting erupted at the border on Friday, the defense ministry said.

"Russia has begun a new wave of counteroffensive actions in this direction," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv. "Now there is a fierce battle in this direction."

The Kharkiv front in Ukraine's northeast had been comparatively calm and motionless for months, albeit with both sides frequently launching aerial attacks — often at the major cities of Kharkiv and Belgorod either side of the border.

At least two civilians were killed and five were injured during heavy shelling at the border settlements, governor Synehubov said. But he also sought to downplay the attempted attack's effectiveness.

"All the enemy can do is to attack in certain small groups, you can call them sabotage and reconnaissance groups or something else, and test the positions of our military," he said.

Ukraine had warned of a Russian buildup in the area, potentially signaling preparations for an offensive but had also said it was not sure if Moscow would go through with an attack.

While the Ukrainian military was prepared for Friday's attack, Zelenskyy said he worried Russia could send more reinforcements.

The commander of Ukraine's ground forces predicted that the more than 2-year-old war against Russia would enter a critical phase in the next two months as Moscow attempts to exploit the time before military aid reaches Ukraine.

"Russia knows that if we receive enough weapons within a month or two, the situation could turn against them," General Oleskander Pavliuk told The Economist magazine in an interview.

mk/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)