KYIV (Reuters) -An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said he expected Kyiv to announce “great news” about its counteroffensive in the eastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday evening, without giving further details.
Kharkiv region, in northeast Ukraine, is on the far end of the front line from the southern Kherson region, which Ukraine last week announced as the focus of a push to retake territory.
“Tonight there is going to be great news from President Zelenskiy on (the) counteroffensive operation in Kharkiv region,” Serhiy Leshchenko said on Twitter.
Several posts in social media from military bloggers and witnesses reported fighting around Balakliia, a town of 27,000 people that lies between the cities of Kharkiv and Izyum.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
Control of Balakliia could facilitate a Ukrainian attempt to encircle or partially encircle the Russian-held city of Izyum, said Kyiv-based military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
(Reporting by Max Hunder and Pavel Polityuk and Conor Humphries; Editing by Alex Richardson and Edmund Blair)
