The frontline of the war in Ukraine is “on the edge” as Vladimir Putin’s troops advance on the northeast of the country, Ukraine’s top military spy warned.
General Kyrylo Budanov said “every hour” counted and Moscow’s assault was intended to exhaust Kyiv’s thin reserves across the frontline.
“The situation is on the edge. Every hour this situation moves toward critical. I’ve used everything we have. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else in the reserves,” Budanov told the New York Times.
Russian troops captured at least six villages in Kharkiv Oblast last week after storming the border as thousands of residents were forced to flee.
Up to 30,000 Russian troops are involved in the attack after Moscow began targeting the region, Kyiv’s security council warned.
“At the moment, Russian actions in the border area are ongoing,” Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the recently appointed secretary of Ukraine’s security council, said.
“We can say that we don’t see any threat of assault on the city of Kharkiv. But there are a lot of Russians, quite a lot. About 50,000 were on the border.” He warned that “more than 30,000” were involved in the current attack.