Ukraine to evacuate 200 children from Kharkiv region under constant Russian shelling

Authorities of the frontline Vovchansk community in the Kharkiv region announced a mandatory evacuation of 200 children to safer towns in the area.

The campaign includes the evacuation of nine settlements, after which refugees will stay in the war-battered Kharkiv city.

We prioritize (evacuation) outside the Kharkiv region, but people do not want to move further than the city of Kharkiv. We have places reserved both there and in other regions, such as Poltava, Rivne, and others, local authorities said.

People, according to their statement, often refuse to leave, but safety is the priority.

These settlements are shelled every day. This morning the city of Vovchansk was targeted, one person was wounded. The attacks are carried out not only with S-300 rocket launchers, but with all types of weapons. Moreover, we have a frontline in the Kupiansk direction, added the head of the Kharkiv military district administration.

He noted that enemy troops are concentrated along the border with Russia both in the north and in the northeast. The enemy is strengthening its defenses there.

In the Kupyansk front, the enemy is increasing its assaults, but the Ukrainian military is responding and holding the enemy back, turning down the advance of the Russian army.

On July 10, the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, Volodymyr Artyukh, said that the authorities would evacuate all residents of the 5-kilometer zone in the communities bordering Russia in the Sumy region, but later the forced evacuation was canceled.

Instead, on July 15, the possibility of voluntary free evacuation from the Sumy region was announced.

On the night of July 16, at about 1:30 a.m., Russians launched four S-300 missiles at Kharkiv from the  Belgorod region. Two missiles exploded in the air, and two more hit the ground at the stadium and the road surface in Kharkiv. Windows were smashed in a four-story building. There were no casualties.

On Sunday evening, July 16, a Russian missile attack on Kharkiv killed one person and injured three.