Police in Kharkiv, a northeastern Ukrainian province targeted by a Russian offensive and at the center of a week of heavy fighting, said today that the Russian military was holding 35 to 40 civilians captive in the city of Vovchansk, using them as “human shields » as a means of protecting a military headquarters.
“Civilians who tried to flee the territories occupied by the Russians are being held captive. According to the initial data, there are 35-40 people. The Russians are keeping them all together in one place, using them as human shields, because it is close to their command center,” regional police chief Serhii Bolvinov told television.
At the same time, the head of the military administration of Bovchansk was injured in a shelling, the local governor said. “The invaders attacked a village in the Vovchansk commune with cluster bombs (…) Five people were injured, two doctors, two drivers and the head of the Vovchansk military administration,” Tamaz Gabarashvili, Oleg Sinegubov said, without giving details of the condition of the victims.
Earlier, Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko accused the Russian military of executing civilians in the city.
Vovchansk, a town of regarding 18,000 before the war, is one of Moscow’s main targets at this time. Yesterday the Ukrainian army said that Ukrainian forces “partially pushed back” Russian forces from the city. Today Kiev said it was slowing Russian military advances in the country’s northeast, where the situation remains “extremely difficult,” President Zelensky said.
The offensive by Russian forces in the region has given Moscow its biggest territorial gains on Ukrainian territory since late 2022.
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