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Russian forces have isolated occupied settlements in northeastern Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine said on Thursday, adding that they fired on volunteer workers.
“There is an absolute ban on delivering humanitarian trucks from controlled Ukrainian territory,” the ministry warned in a Facebook post. “Locals have been warned that volunteers trying to provide assistance will be shot.”
A man tries to put out a fire Wednesday after a Russian bomb attack on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (AP/Felipe Dana)
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The ministry said the isolated settlements are in the Velykyi Burluk district – an area just 20 miles from the Russian border.
Russia is using the Kharkiv region to step up its offensive in eastern Ukraine.
All evacuation routes from the area were also reportedly blocked, with departure being allowed “exclusively to the territory of the Russian Federation.”
The Department of Defense said cellphones weren’t working and many were without power. Access to ATMs, medical services and basic necessities was also unavailable, and the ministry found that consumer goods were “sold at significantly inflated prices”.
Kharkiv is about 30 miles from the Russian border and lies on a major thoroughfare that the invading forces relied on as they pushed south towards the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
US defense officials have warned that Russia is attempting to pinch the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — commonly referred to as Donbass — by pushing troops from the north down through Kharkiv and up through the southeastern port city of Mariupol.
Rescuers are seen at the scene after a building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in downtown Kharkiv (Photo by Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Russia continues to aggressively attack the strategic port city and claimed victory over it on Thursday, although Ukrainians claimed they have yet to take the city as thousands holed up in tunnels under a steel mill.
Ukraine is still trying to evacuate civilians stuck in areas around the southern city of Kherson — some 260 miles southwest of Mariupol and 80 miles north of Russia’s annexed Crimea — where guerrilla warfare rages on.
Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists near Mariupol in Ukraine on Monday. (AP/Alexei Alexandrov)
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Reports emerged on Thursday claiming that Russia had raised its flags over Kherson’s World War II eternal flames memorial after it was occupied for about eight weeks, but Ukrainian forces have reportedly retaken villages near the city.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshuk said Ukrainian officials are working to secure evacuation routes from three villages northeast of the city.