(Reuters) -A Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region said on Friday that civilians were being evacuated from three Russian-held towns in the region where Ukraine has launched a surprise counteroffensive.
Vitaly Ganchev said on state television host Vladimir Solovyov’s daily livestream that civilians were being evacuated from the towns of Izium, Kupiansk and Veliky Burluk.
Ganchev said the evacuation was mainly from Kupiansk and Izium but added: “We’ve now received word that Veliky Burluk is under artillery fire, so people, of course, were asked to leave for safer settlements.”
Ganchev said he would turn for help to authorities in the Belgorod region of southern Russia if there were problems relocating the people who were evacuated.
Kupiansk and Izium are vital logistics hubs for the Russian army in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and both appear directly threatened by a dramatic Ukrainian counteroffensive that Kyiv says has pushed up to 50 km (30 miles) past Russian lines this week.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War predicted on Friday that Ukrainian forces would likely recapture Kupiansk within 72 hours.
Speaking to Russian state television earlier on Friday, Ganchev said that Ukrainian forces had won a “significant victory” in Kharkiv region, one of the first Russian official acknowledgements of the counteroffensive.
(Reporting by Reuters)
