Kiev Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had regained control of areas in the northeastern Kharkiv region where Russian troops entered earlier this month. “Our troops have now managed to take control of the border area where Russian troops entered,” Zelensky said in his video address on Friday evening. Zelensky’s statement appeared to contradict comments made by Russian officials.
Viktor Vodolatsky, a member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Russian forces had now taken control of more than half of the town of Vovchansk, three miles (five kilometers) inside the border, Russian state news agency Tass reported. Vovchansk has been the center of fighting since Russia launched its invasion of Kharkiv region on May 10.
Vodolatsky also claimed that once Vovchansk was secured, Russian forces would target the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk in the neighboring Donetsk region. These claims could not immediately be independently verified. The city of Kharkiv is about 20 kilometers (12 mi) from the Russian border.
Meanwhile, finance officials from the G-7, the world’s seven richest democracies, said they had made progress toward an agreement on a U.S. proposal to recover more money for Ukraine from Russian assets seized in the country. However, ministers abandoned work on a final agreement ahead of a summit of national leaders in June.
“We are making progress in our discussions on possible ways to bring forward extraordinary profits from immovable Russian sovereign wealth for the benefit of Ukraine,” the draft statement said. Although progress was made at the meeting in Stresa on the shores of Lago Maggiore in northern Italy, the final decision on the use of the assets will rest with G-7 national leaders, including US President Joe Biden, at the annual summit in Fasano in the south. Italy will depend next month.
Tags: Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin
First published: May 25, 2024, 23:27 IST