Ukraine claims Russian forces withdrawing from Kharkiv

After months of severe warfare, the Ukrainian military claimed in its daily statement that Russia had been forced to withdraw its military from Kharkiv, the second largest city in the war-ravaged country. Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Kharkiv has been one of the worst-hit towns.

The Ukrainian general staff of the armed forces stated that efforts were focused on retaining occupied sites and supply channels.

The northern city had been a top objective for Russian forces, but after Ukraine's counteroffensive, Ukraine says Moscow is withdrawing from the area around Kharkiv and concentrating its efforts on "depleting Ukrainian forces and destroying fortifications" in the eastern Donetsk region.

On Facebook, Kyiv stated that Russia "primary goal is to establish full control over the territory of the oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson and to secure the stability of the land corridor with the temporarily occupied Ukrainian Crimea."

The city of Kharkiv, in north-east Ukraine, is barely 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Russian border and not far from the Donbas area, which is home to pro-Russia rebel groups fighting on Russia's side in the conflict.

It is a significant city, Ukraine's second-largest, with a population of 1.4 million people before the war, with at least a million more living in the adjacent province of the same name.

Since start of the war, Kharkiv has been a crucial strategic area for Russia's invasion, but the Ukrainian defence line has resisted weeks of attempts to break it. Instead, Russia shelled the city with heavy artillery, as it had done with other critical targets like Mariupol, causing widespread damage.

However, in recent weeks, a strong counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces to retake villages north of the city has pushed Russian soldiers back towards the border.

According to some accounts, Russian artillery weapons have been pushed back far enough that they no longer threaten the city centre, while the local governor continues to warn that returning is dangerous.