Russian forces launched an armored ground attack on Friday near Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country and made small inroads, opening a new front in a war that has long been waged in the east and south.
Ukraine sent reinforcements as fighting raged in the border areas of the region, the defense ministry said, adding that Russia had pounded the frontier town of Vovchansk with guided aerial bombs and artillery.
"Russia has begun a new wave of counteroffensive actions in this direction," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv. "Now there is a fierce battle in this direction."