Russia denies failure of Kharkiv offensive amid plans to seal border villages

The Kremlin on Wednesday denied a major ground offensive on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region had failed, after Russian officials said they would seal off border villages to protect civilians from Ukrainian shelling.

Russia in May launched a surprise assault into the Kharkiv region, which sits across the border from Russia’s Belgorod region, in a bid to push Ukrainian forces back and establish what President Vladimir Putin called a “security zone.”

But on Tuesday, Belgorod’s regional governor announced that civilian access to 14 Russian border villages would be restricted given the ongoing intensity of Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

 Restrictions on traveling to certain populated localities in the borderline Belgorod Region have been imposed to ensure the security of local residents, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

 "New practices are being imposed in order to take the necessary measures for security of the population [of the Belgorod Region]," he said.

 Russia will continue its operation to create a security zone in the Kharkov Zone until its goal is achieved, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"The operation continues and it will go on until it concludes successfully," he told reporters.

He rejected the assumption that the introduction of additional security measures in the Belgorod Region could mean the failure of the operation to establish a buffer zone in the Kharkov Region. "No, it doesn’t mean that," Peskov said.