The White House said Russian forces may be preparing to mount a large-scale counteroffensive against the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after making incremental incursions in the area and opening a new war front near Ukraine’s second-largest city.
"You're not going to do that if you're not also thinking about some other larger assault directly on the city," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Friday during a press briefing.
The U.S announced a fresh $400 million military aid package of weapons and equipment for Ukraine Friday as its forces try to repel an intensified Russian armored ground offensive near Kharkiv, Kirby said.
The State Department said in a statement that the emergency military package contains urgently needed materiel such as air defense munitions for Patriot and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems; Stinger anti-aircraft missiles; equipment to integrate Western launchers, missiles and radars with Ukraine’s systems; additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and ammunition; 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds; TOW and Javelin missiles; AT-4 anti-armor systems; precision aerial munitions; high-speed, anti-radiation missiles; Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles; M113 Armored Personnel Carriers; mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles; coastal and river patrol boats; small arms ammunition; grenades; demolitions munitions; and spare parts.
The Presidential Drawdown Authority allows the president to transfer munitions and services from the Pentagon’s U.S. stockpile without congressional approval.
This is the third tranche of emergency military aid for Ukraine since the U.S. Congress passed an aid bill allocating $60.8 billion for Ukraine.
Fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine
Fighting is raging near Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
“We are adding more forces to Kharkiv directions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday in his nightly video address. “Both along our state border and along the entire front line, we will invariably destroy the occupier in a way that will disrupt any Russian offensive intentions. We are providing everything required to protect our positions.”
Zelenskyy warned earlier Friday that Russia could be preparing a large-scale counteroffensive within the next few months. He told reporters that Kyiv's forces were prepared to meet Friday's Russian assault, but that Moscow could send more troops to the area to overwhelm Ukraine’s overstretched and outnumbered troops.
Russian troops supported by armored units have pushed into Ukraine in that region by 1 kilometer, trying to "create a buffer zone" that would prevent Ukrainian attacks into Russia’s border regions, according to a high-ranking Ukrainian military source who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.
At least two civilians were killed and five more were injured during the heavy Russian shelling of the border settlements, said Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Kharkiv region.
Russia is pummeling the frontier town of Vovchansk with guided aerial bombs and artillery. Local authorities are helping with civilian evacuations, Tamaz Gambarashvili, head of the Vovchansk military administration, told Hromadske radio.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow.
More than two years after its invasion, Russia has the upper hand in the battlefield, piercing into Ukrainian territory and opening a new front as Ukraine faces shortages of manpower, artillery shells and air defenses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March he was considering creating a "sanitary zone" in Ukrainian territory adjoining Belgorod, a Russian region often hit by Ukrainian shelling.
Ukraine’s attacks on Russian forces
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military struck an oil storage depot in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Luhansk region that sparked a fire, Russia's TASS news agency reported.
Ukrainian bloggers and Telegram channels also said the depot in the town of Rovenky was hit, and they posted pictures of a large blaze.
Earlier Friday, another Ukrainian attack targeted an oil refinery near the Russian city of Kaluga, southwest of Moscow. The strike, by a Ukrainian long-range drone, set four oil storage tanks on fire, according to Vladislav Shapsha, the regional governor. He said there were no casualties.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian refineries, hoping to cripple the country’s military abilities and hit Russia in its pocketbook: Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, providing key revenue and fuel.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it downed seven Ukrainian drones early Friday in the Moscow, Bryansk and Belgorod regions.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
