Ukrainian officials have declared the compulsory evacuation of children and their families from a town in the northeastern Kharkiv area, where Russian troops have been making progress.
The latest call for civilians to leave Borova, which had an estimated pre-war population of about 5,000, highlights the weakening of Ukrainian defenses.
“In light of the security situation, the decision to enforce the evacuation of children along with their families from the village of Borova in the Kharkiv region has been approved,” stated Ukrainian authorities.
Although Russian forces were pushed back in the Kharkiv region—adjacent to Russia—several months after their invasion in February 2022, they have recently gained some ground.
Along the extensive front in eastern Ukraine, the under-resourced and outmatched Ukrainian troops have been surrendering territory to Russian forces, especially in the industrial Donetsk region.
The Donetsk regional governor previously reported that all children had been evacuated from the frontline town of Myrnograd, with only a few dozen remaining in the nearby transport hub of Pokrovsk— a primary target of Russian advances.
Yesterday, the Ukrainian Red Cross accused Russian forces of destroying one of their offices located in the town of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, authorities in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia has claimed to have annexed along with Donetsk and two other areas, reported yesterday that two men, aged 40 and 73, were killed in a drone strike in the Kherson region.
In the southern Kherson region, Governor Oleg Prokudin indicated that a 66-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man were killed by Russian shelling targeting two villages on the banks of the Dnipro River, directly across from Russian-occupied territory.
