KYIV, Ukraine, May 11, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Hundreds of people were evacuated

from areas near the Russian border in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, the regional
governor said Saturday, a day after Moscow launched a surprise ground
offensive.

"A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated," governor Oleg Synegubov wrote
on social media, adding that there had been Russian artillery and mortar
attacks on 30 settlements in the region over the past 24 hours.

Russian forces made small advances in the border area it was pushed back from
nearly two years ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said a "fierce battle" was
on in the area.

The Kharkiv region has been mostly under Ukrainian control since September
2022.

A senior Ukrainian military source said Russian forces had advanced one
kilometre (0.6 miles) into Ukraine and were trying to "create a buffer zone"
in the Kharkiv and neighbouring Sumy regions to prevent attacks on Russian
territory.

Officials in Kyiv had warned for weeks that Moscow might try to attack its
northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with
delays in Western aid and manpower shortages.

Ukraine's military said it had deployed more troops and Zelensky said
Ukrainian forces were using artillery and drones to thwart the Russian
advance.

"Reserve units have been deployed to strengthen the defence in this area of
the front," it said.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said on Friday that Russia had
made "tactically significant gains".

But the main aim of the operation was "drawing Ukrainian manpower and
materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine," it
said.

ISW said it did not appear to be "a large-scale sweeping offensive operation
to envelop, encircle and seize Kharkiv" -- Ukraine's second biggest city.