Ukraine war latest updates: 'Fierce battle' after Russia launches attack in Kharkiv - as Ukraine says it was 'prepared' (2024)

The US is putting together a $400m (£320m) military aid package for Ukraine, an official has told the Reuters news agency.

Speaking anonymously, the official said the aid includes artillery, anti-tank munitions, armoured vehicles and small arms that can be used immediately on the battlefield.

The first F-16 fighter jets could be delivered to Ukraine this summer, more than a year after the US authorised allies to send the crafts for a much-needed boost to Kyiv's aerial firepower.

A high-ranking Ukrainian military source says the jets are expected in June or July.

The source did not say who would supply the jets.

Ukraine has sought the US-made F-16 fighter jets to help it counter Russian air superiority during more than two years of war.

So far, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium have committed to sending F-16s to Ukraine.

Illya Yevlash, spokesperson for the air force, said this week some Ukrainian pilots were completing their training to fly the warplanes.

The pilots and ground staff have been trained by Ukraine's Western partners for months.

The Ukrainian military has had to rely on a relatively small fleet of Soviet-era jets as it has fought to hold back the attack.

With Russian forces slowly advancing in the eastern Donbas region and mounting a fresh assault in the northeast near the city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials see the addition of the F-16 as a vital upgrade.

According to Ukraine, Russia attempted to "break through" defensive lines in a newly targeted area.

Officials said Russian troops attempted to gain ground near Vovchansk, which just over 10km from the Russian border inside Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.

The village is some 70km northeast of the city of Kharkiv itself, which is highlighted on the map below.

So is Russia trying to open a new front?

Context

Before we get into today's events, we need to understand what's been going on in Kharkiv.

Ukraine previously pushed Russian troops almost entirely out of the region in 2022 - and has since maintained control of the area.

There have been frequent rocket attacks on the region, but no major ground offensives since.

But rhetoric in recent months has been building as Vladimir Putin in March called for Russia to establish a "buffer zone" between it and Ukraine (inside Ukrainian territory).

As a region that borders Russia, Kharkiv has naturally been identified as a possible target - and reports have suggested that Moscow has been moving forces from the east and directing them northwards.

Some analysts suggested this could open a new front to allow major advances, while others speculated action on the border could distract Kyiv and spread its army thin.

Today's incursion

Ukrainian officials report that at 5am this morning, Russian forces sprung a surprise attack near Vovchansk - barely 10km from the neighbouring Belgorod Oblast.

"At approximately 5am, there was an attempt by the enemy to break through our defensive line under the cover of armoured vehicles," Ukraine's defence ministry said.

"As of now, these attacks have been repulsed; battles of varying intensity continue."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists that Ukrainian troops were well-prepared for the attack.

Reinforcements have been sent, and fighting continued in the afternoon, according to some reports.

The ground incursion was preceded by a massive artillery barrage, the region's governor said.

Vitaliy Ganchev, a Russian-installed official in the Kharkiv region, said on the Telegram app that there was "fighting on several parts of the line of contact, including in the border areas", and asked residents "to be careful and not to leave shelters without an urgent need".

Was it successful?

Reports indicate that Moscow's army managed to secure as much as 1km, while the presence of Ukrainian reinforcements suggests that Russia's offensive action may not yet be over.

What was Russia trying to achieve?

Sources have told the Reuters news agency that Russia was trying to advance as much as 10km in order to establish that "buffer zone" we mentioned earlier.

There could be a number of reasons for this.

The most obvious is to help stop Ukraine's frequent drone and missile attacks on the Russian region of Belgorod.

Others include opening a fresh front to distract Ukraine or to offer Russia a new route into the country.

The heavy shelling forced mass evacuations in the area - which could be part of a Russian strategy meant to disrupt Ukrainian authorities and divert resources.

As we've been reporting today, Ukrainian officials are claiming intense fighting is under way in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, with shelling targeting the town of Vovchansk.

Ukraine has sent reinforcements to the area, the defence ministry has said, as Russian infantry tried to penetrate Ukrainian defences.

The bombardment has killed at least one civilian in Vovchansk, with another five injured, which has prompted the evacuation of about 3,000 people from the border town with a pre-war population of 17,000 that has dwindled to a few thousand.

Another person was killed in a nearby village.

"The entire town is under massive shelling now, it is not safe to stay here," Vovchansk administration head Tamaz Hambarishvili told Ukraine's Hromadske Radio.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyysaid Ukraine's military had anticipated the attack and calibrated its response.

"Now there is a fierce battle in this direction," he was quoted as saying by Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne.

Russian military bloggers said the assault could mark the start of an attempt to carve out a "buffer zone" that Vladimir Putinvowed to create earlier this year to halt Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions.

Ukraine has previously said it was aware Russia was assembling thousands of troops along the northeastern border, close to the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

While the Kremlin's forces launched their most recent ground offensive in eastern Ukraine,intelligence officials said they expected the Kremlin's forces to attack in the northeast as well.

Ukraine may have to brace for electricity shortages this summer as Russia continues to target the country's energy sector, the grid operator's head warns.

Volodymyr Kudrytskiy, the head of Ukrenergo grid operator, said: "We will definitely face challenges in the summer and these challenges will be primarily related to capacity shortages due to damage to power plants."

There have been blackouts across the country since late March, when Russia launched massive drone attacks on power stations, raising the issue of decentralisation of generating capacity.

After the latest attacks on the energy system, Ukrenergo imposed power supply restrictions on industrial consumers, while the government urges the population to save electricity.

"We realise that today is not the most difficult situation yet, we have not yet seen the real summer heat and air conditioning systems are not yet in use," Mr Kudrytskiy added.

Hydro-electric power plants produce less electricity in the summer, he says, when nuclear power plants also undergo regular mandatory repairs.

Ukraine received emergency power aid from EU countries in the morning, Ukrenergo says.

During the day, it expects to import electricity from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Moldova.

The country has lost about 80% of its thermal power generation, Ukrainian officials have said, relying increasingly on the three nuclear power plants that produce about 60% of its electricity.

In the UK, a British man accused of orchestrating arson attacks on Ukrainian-linked businesses in London on behalf of Wagner Group - a proscribed terror organisation - is set to face trial next year.

Dylan Earl, 20, has been charged under the National Security Act 2023 - the first case to involve alleged offences under the new spy laws.

Today, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker set a date of 2 June 2025 for Earl and four other men to appear in an eight-week trial.

Earl is accused of being in contact with a handler in Wagner before checking out targets "in relation to activity intended to benefit Russia".

The Wagner Group, whose former leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last summer, is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

After news emerged of the charge, the Foreign Office said it had summoned Russia's ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin.

Court documents show Earl is accused of recruiting and paying others to carry out an arson attack at an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, on Ukrainian-linked businesses owned by Oddisey and Meest UK.

A fire on 20 March needed 60 firefighters to bring it under control, and the alleged target of the fire is labelled as "Mr X" in the charges.

The charges:

• Earl, of Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire, is charged with aggravated arson reckless as to whether life will be endangered, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971, preparatory conduct to an act endangering life or a person or an act creating a serious risk to the health and safety of the public in the United Kingdom contrary to section 18 National Security Act 2023, and assisting a foreign intelligence service contrary to section 3 National Security Act 2023.
• Jake Reeves, 22, of Croydon, south London, is accused of aggravated arson reckless as to whether life will be endangered, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971, and agreeing to accept a material benefit from a foreign intelligence service, contrary to section 17(2) and (11) of the National Security Act 2023.
• Paul English, 60, of Roehampton, southwest London, and Nii Mensah, 21, of Thornton Heath, south London, are both charged with aggravated arson reckless as to whether life will be endangered, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971.
• Dmitrijus Paulauska, 22, of Croydon, is accused of having information about terrorist acts, contrary to section 38B of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Paulauska was released on conditional bail while the other four defendants were remanded into custody.

Russian shelling of Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv area, has killed one civilian and injured another five, according to the region's governor.

Another was killed in a nearby village, Oleh Synehubov adds.

As we have reported today, Ukrainian officials say fighting is intensifying in the Kharkiv region, with Russian troops trying to "break through" and create a buffer zone (see our 12.32pm post).

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has just told a press conference Ukraine's forces were prepared for a new Russian ground assault on the border of the northeastern Kharkiv region.

"Ukraine met them there with troops - brigades and artillery," he said, adding Russia could send more troops to support its attempted advance.

More now from Kharkiv, where fighting appears to be intensifying.

Ukraine's defence ministry says its forces are repelling an attack in the Kharkiv region, with Kyiv sending reinforcements after an attempt to "break though" at about 5am this morning.

A high-ranking Ukrainian military source says Russian forces have advanced 1km near Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv region.

The source, who declined to be named, said Russian forces are aiming to push Ukrainian troops as far back as 10km from the border to create a buffer zone.

Russian attacks on the region may be a sign Moscow is seeking to open a new front in the war, with reports of a recent build-up of troops in the area suggesting Russia wants to divert and spread Ukraine's depleted defensive forces.

"At approximately 5am, 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."

Russia's Victory Day celebrations yesterday, which every year commemorate the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, was "reduced in scale", according to the UK's ministry of defence.

In an intelligence update shared on X, the MoD says parades were cancelled in 24 cities this year, primarily in regions bordering Ukraine, likely "due to poor security".

This compares to 21 cancelled parades last year, the ministry adds.

The major parade was in Moscow, with "less modern military equipment on display when compared to pre-war parades", although the fly-past was reinstated.

Of the 30 units on show, the MoD says, two-thirds came from military academies and youth and veteran groups.

There was also an "absence of heavy armoured vehicles", with just the one battle tank leading the procession - a Second World War-era T-34 tank, which traditionally kicks off the parade.

There were 20 battle tanks in 2020, the MoD says.

"With the significant losses in Russian personnel and equipment as a result of the Ukraine war, there was no opportunity for Russia to use the parades to use demonstrate military strength," the MoD concludes.

Russia is capitalising on Ukraine's shortage of weapons and ammunition to seize the initiative on the battlefield.

After two years of protracted attritional warfare, Russia is once again on the front-foot in Ukraine.

If the West is to deny President Putin a strategically important success in Ukraine, it will need to find new ways to combat Russia's aggression.

To date, the West has limited Ukraine's ability to strike back at Russia by restricting the use of Western weapons - particularly long range missiles - to Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, for fear of escalating the conflict.

However, Ukraine needs the maximum flexibility possible if it is to prevail over its numerically superior adversary - this is one of the core topics covered by ourmilitary analyst Sean Bell in this week's RedMatrix podcast.

Russian momentum

The US's $60bn package of military aid to Ukraine was finally agreed at the end of April after months of delay.

As Bell highlights, President Putin is capitalising on Ukraine's shortage of weapons to intensify his offensive operations in the Donbas, where his forces are gaining momentum and seizing numerous small settlements.

Whether these tactical gains can develop into a strategic breakthrough remains to be seen, but momentum is a vital component of warfare - and Russia has it.

Securing approval in the US for the $60bn of military aid was not a simple process.

Understandable concerns over the relative priorities of domestic issues amid support for a non-NATO nation thousands of miles away divided opinion; it was no coincidence that US secretary of state Antony Blinken highlighted the delivery of US military equipment and ammunition had created "jobs for the US".

No strikes on Russia

The aid package also included a number of long-range missiles - the US Army ATACMS.

These systems have the range to threaten all Russian forces in occupied Ukraine, and could be crucial in helping Ukraine turn the tide of the war back in Ukraine's favour.

However, defence secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated these weapons could not be used to target within Russia itself.

Wars on this scale consume vast resources.Russia relies on its oil exports to provide revenues to invest in its national defence industrial base, and also purchase vast quantities of munitions from North Korea and Iran.

Therefore, President Zelenskyy has deliberately targeted some of Russia's immense oil refining capacity to reduce Russia's oil revenues.

However, any reduction in global supply of oil inevitably increases the price.Austin was questioned on this point at one of the defence department hearings, where it was suggested this was one of the reasons that the US placed limitations on the use of US weapons.

Putin's sabre-rattling

In contrast, during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month, Lord Cameron announced it is up to Ukraine to decide how to use British weapons and insisted it has the right to strike targets on Russian territory.

This notable shift in stance from the UK prompted the Russian foreign ministry to claim this would have "catastrophic" consequences.

As Bell notes, President Putin knows strategic success in Ukraine relies on deterring increased Western support for Ukraine, and to date, his sabre-rattling has successfully tempered Western political appetite for an escalation.

Regardless of the political rhetoric, the West faces a stark choice.

Ukraine is utterly dependent on Western support to stem the Russian invasion. President Putin knows this, so he is using all tools at his disposal to deter increased Western involvement.

However, should Putin prevail, what next?

If a nuclear superpower is at liberty to attack any non-nuclear power without consequence, that has profound implications for global security.

But how far is the West prepared to go to stop Putin's brutal offensive?