<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Russia on Saturday said it had captured six villages in Ukraine’s east after launching a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defense ministry said its troops had “liberated” five villages in the Kharkiv region near the border with Russia Borisivka, Ogirtseve, Pletenivka, Pylna and Strilecha&nbsp; “as a result of offensive actions.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The village of Keramik in the Donetsk region was also now under Russian control, it said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukrainian officials said Russian forces made small advances in the area it was pushed back from nearly two years ago, the latest in a series of gains as Ukrainian forces find themselves outgunned and outmanned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated,” Kharkiv governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He reported Russian artillery and mortar attacks on 30 settlements over the past 24 hours.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Groups of people could be seen coming in vans and cars with as many bags as they could carry at an evacuation arrival point outside the city of Kharkiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Evacuees&nbsp; many of them elderly&nbsp; registered and received food and medical assistance in makeshift tents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukrainska Pravda quoted military sources saying the Russian assault had resumed on Saturday near the village of Glyboke in Kharkiv, reports AFP&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>