More than 2,500 people were evacuated from Ukraine's Kharkiv border region following surprise Russian incursions that sparked fierce fighting, the region's governor said Saturday.
Combat continued for a second day around five frontier villages across from Russia's Belgorod region, said Kharkiv's governor Oleh Syniehubov, Reuters reported.
"As of now, the enemy keeps pressing in the north of our region. Our forces have repelled nine attacks," he told a news conference.
Efforts to evacuate civilians were ongoing, Syniehubov said.
Russia opened up a new front in its 2-year war with Ukraine when armored vehicles launched an attack on the country's northeast after pounding the town of Vovchansk with airstrikes on Friday.
Syniehubov said there was no imminent danger to the regional capital of Kharkiv, which has a population of 1.3 million and is Ukraine's second-largest city.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it had captured the villages of Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilecha, but a spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern command said reinforcements had contained the Russian forces.
"The enemy is localized in the 'gray zone.' It is not expanding. However, there is the question of finally destroying it and catching it in the tree lines where it could hide," said spokesperson Nazar Voloshynin.
A resident of Vovchansk, identified only as Serhii, told the BBC that his wife was rushed to a local hospital after being wounded by a Russian glide bomb that destroyed his house and vehicles.
Although smoke was still pouring out of the home's ruins, Serhii said he didn't want to leave because he was worried about what would happen to the family's four goats.
