As Russian troops close in on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed concerns over another Russian attack. Zelenskyy has warned that Kyiv has only a quarter of the air defences it needs to hold the frontline.
Meanwhile, Russian forces claimed that they had captured the village of Starytsia in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. According to Russia's defence ministry, its troops are continuing to advance in the area.
As Russians are making a gain on the front, around 10,000 people in the Kharkiv were forced to leave in just over a week, said Kharkiv's regional governor Oleg Synegubov.
Several big cities in the east including Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, which are major military hubs for Kyiv's war effort have come under threat. Also, Ukraine has roughly 1,000 km of frontlines to defend in the east, north and south.
In an interview with AFP, Zelenskyy said that the situation in Kharkiv is "controlled" but "not stabilised".
“I won’t say it’s a great success [for Russia] but we have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory,” the president was quoted by AFP.
"Today we have about 25% of what we need to defend Ukraine," he added.
As Ukraine faces high pressure on the military front, the United States announced a $400 million package of aid for Ukraine. President Joe Biden had promised that he would rush the required aid to the country in its battle against Russia.
However, according to Ukrainian military officials, only small batches of aid have been arriving from the US. It will take at least two months before supplies meet Kyiv's needs to hold the line.
Thousands of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Many are taking the risk of swimming to cross the border and their way into neighbouring Romania and Hungary.
