Visiting Kharkiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in the northeast was extremely difficult but under control after the military partially halted a Russian advance, most notably thwarting an invasion of Vovchansk, 5km (3 miles) from the border with Russia.
Sergiy Bolvinov, the head of police investigations in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, accused Russia of taking 30 to 40 civilians captive in Vovchansk to use as human shields near their command centre.
General Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, said he did not believe Russia's military had the troop numbers to make a strategic breakthrough in the Kharkiv region and he was confident Ukrainian forces would hold their lines there.
Ukraine's General Staff said Russia was directing its most intense assaults on the front line near the cities of Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia's offensive has been unrelenting for months.
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