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Ukrainian forces shell homes of Kharkov Region residents who refuse to evacuate — official

Vitaly Ganchev said that the Ukrainian forces shelled the villages while retreating, not knowing whether Russian troops were even there

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces’ strikes target the homes of those civilians in the Kharkov Region who refuse to leave the territory of Ukraine, Vitaly Ganchev, head of the military-civilian administration of the Kharkov Region, told reporters.

"There are quite a lot of people there who refuse to leave their homes. And so, their strikes have targeted the residential buildings where those people lived whom they accused of simply waiting for the Russian army, simply waiting for the Russian world, whom they called awaiters, collaborators and so on. Therefore, of course, shelling attacks are being carried out, showing practically no sign of abating," he said.

Ganchev said that the Ukrainian forces shelled the villages while retreating, not knowing whether Russian troops were even there. He added that citizens had been forced to leave by Ukrainian authorities.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian authorities said that 10,800 civilians had been relocated from the border areas of the Kharkov Region since May 10. Kiev admits that the situation in the region is extremely tense for the Ukrainian army. On May 14, the Ukrainian General Staff said that its armed forces had been coerced into "moving to more favorable positions" near Volchansk and Lukyantsy. The military command announced that more reserves had been transferred to the region. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted that some of those units had been withdrawn from other areas of the front. Zelensky chaired a meeting of the supreme commander-in-chief’s headquarters in Kharkov on May 16 and described the situation there as extremely complicated. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that a number of settlements had been liberated n the Kharkov Region.