The Latest Breaking News from Kharkiv

Electric pylons toppled, cables strewn across the ground; gutted houses and roads dotted with craters -- the village of Grakove in eastern Ukraine bears the scars of Ukraine's bitter counter-offensive. "It was frightening," said 61-year-old Anatoli Vasiliev, recalling this week's battle when Ukrainian troops recaptured Grakove from the Russians. "There…

Footage circulating online shows a bloodied soldier with a resemblance to Colonel General Andrei Sychevoi, a top Russian general believed to have been captured in a counteroffensive operation in Kharkiv

"Now is not the time to name the settlements to which the Ukrainian flag returns."

Ukrainian forces have liberated more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region as part of a counter-offensive against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.

Ukraine's advance in the Kharkiv region has been "very sharp and rapid" and Ukrainian forces have recaptured a number of settlements, the Russian-installed administrator of Russian-controlled parts of the region said in a live online broadcast.

Ukraine's rapid territorial gains have caught Russia off guard at a vulnerable section of their front line in an attack that threatens an important supply hub used by Moscow in the east, military analysts said.

Ukraine has recaptured several settlements in the Kharkiv region from Russian forces in a "very sharp and rapid" advance, the Russian-installed administrator of Russian-occupied parts of the region said in a live online broadcast on Friday.

Ukrainian forces appear to be continuing speedy advance in Kharkiv region as ‘fierce battles’ rage

Grakove (Ukraine) (AFP) - Russia said on Friday it was sending reinforcements to the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv says it has re-taken dozens of settlements as part of a broader counter-offensive.