There has been an uptick in fighting along the border between the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian artillery and mortar fire hit settlements in the Kupyansk sector, which is in Kharkiv.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that in the same area, ground forces supported by airpower hit two Ukrainian units. The ministry said artillery fire had prevented a rotation of Ukrainian troops in the same area.
An unofficial Russian social media account also said Ukrainian attacks had increased along the front east of Kupyansk, but had made no progress.
In the south, Ukraine reported artillery and other attacks by Russian forces in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian forces are defending gains made in the first few days of the invasion.
Yurii Malashko, the head of Zaporizhzhia's military administration, said there was heavy shelling of villages along the entire front line, including Stepnohirsk, Mala Tokmachka and Huliaipole.
Malachko, speaking on Ukraine television, also claimed that under the guise of evacuating civilians, Russian soldiers were fleeing from the town of Enerhodar, adjacent to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Some civilians who had been evacuated from Russian-controlled areas near the frontlines in Zaporizhzhia had returned home “because they were left to fend for themselves in Berdiansk [further south] and people are afraid that their homes will be looted,” he said.
