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RUSSIA is suffering record losses with 1,740 reportedly killed in a single day as its troops are thrown into meatgrinder assaults in northeastern Ukraine.
Moscow’s forces are pounding over 30 villages and towns in the Kharkiv region after pressing on with a brutal new ground offensive.
Heavy fighting raged along the northeast front today while Ukraine rushes in reinforcements to try to repel the sudden offensive that kicked off on Friday.
Over 6,000 residents have been forced to evacuate as their homes are battered by Putin’s advancing troops, officials said.
Close to 40,000 soldiers and 500 tanks had been amassed along the border ahead of the large-scale ground attack Kyiv had feared was coming for weeks.
However, the latest figures from Ukraine claim that Moscow lost 1,740 troops on Sunday as well as scores of tanks.
Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the tried-and-tested Russian tactic of launching human wave attacks – sending forward a disproportionate amount of infantry units to exhaust Ukrainian troops and firepower.
Dramatic footage also showed Ukraine decimating a column of five tanks from above as they attempted to plough further into the Kharkiv region.
Analysts say the Russian onslaught is designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western weapons shipments can reach the frontline.
Ukraine is now desperately trying to hold the line against Russia, which has a significant advantage in manpower and munitions and is pushing their advantage.
Russia is firing at everything they can
Sergiy Kryvetchenko, deputy head of Lyptsi
Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said “more than 30” towns and villages “were struck by enemy artillery and mortar attacks”, wounding at least nine people, while some areas were being bombed by jets.
The fierce battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, capitulating more land to Russian forces after Moscow claimed to have seized nine villages.
Ukraine’s General Staff acknowledged today that Russia “currently is achieving tactical success” after driving a wedge into Kyiv’s stretched defences.
They added that the situation was “dramatically changing” with Russian assaults in various areas.
Kyiv says six painful months of delays by the US Congress to vote through a massive aid package have cost it on the battlefield and left its front unfortified.
It now hopes significant quantities of the newly approved assistance will arrive quickly to shore up the defence effort.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that troops had “improved the tactical position and dealt a blow to (Ukrainian) manpower” around border villages including Lyptsi and the town of Vovchansk.
Sergiy Kryvetchenko, deputy head of Lyptsi said: “They are shelling the villages, firing on everything they can.”
He added: “The KABs (guided aerial bombs) are flying. The artillery is flying. Drones. Everything.”
Rybar, a Russian Telegram channel with military links, said Moscow’s offensive led to territorial gains because troops took some villages where Russian soldiers already had a presence and others that were “deserted wastelands”.
As of Monday morning, there were no “large-scale breakthroughs of the enemy’s defences”, Rybar said.
At an evacuation point near Kharkiv’s frontline, dozens of mostly elderly and disorientated evacuees were resting.
“We weren’t going to leave. Home is home,” said 72-year-old Lyuda Zelenskaya, hugging a trembling cat named Zhora.
Liuba Konovalova, 70, said she had endured a “really terrifying” night before her evacuation.
Oleksiy Kharkivsky, a senior police officer from Vovchansk, said: “Everything in the city is being destroyed… You hear constant explosions, artillery, mortars. The enemy is hitting the city with everything they have,” he said.
Russia stepped up attacks on Kharkiv in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements with constant airstrikes in what analysts predicted were preparations for a new offensive.
The city of Kharkiv, located on the eastern front only 30 miles from the Russian border, was the prime target of Russia’s aerial bombardment.
Its mayor had warned the West that it risked being turned into a “second Aleppo” – the Syrian city which heavy Russian bombing helped to decimate a decade ago.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks in the border villages.
“Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task,” he said.
Troops must “return the initiative to Ukraine”, the president insisted, again urging allies to speed up arms deliveries.
The key moment in the conflict comes as Putin sacked his long-term defence minister and appointed a tech geek with zero military experience.
Civilian Andrei Belousov, 65, will now take the reins of Russia’s war in Ukraine as the Kremlin ruler carries out a major shake-up of his cabinet.
The Institute for the Study War said the high-level reshuffle signals that Putin is taking significant steps to prepare for a protracted war in Ukraine and a possible future confrontation with Nato.
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