Ukraine says Russian guided bomb attacks have decreased sharply in Kharkiv region

Russian forces have reduced the number of guided bomb attacks on border settlements in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, the local governor said on Monday, while Moscow troops struggle to repel Ukraine's cross-border assault in the Kursk region.

Russia has long been pummelling Ukrainian villages lying on the border with artillery and extremely destructive guided bombs. It stepped up attacks on the Kharkiv region in May, when Moscow's troops opened a new front in the region's north.

"We have been recording a sharp decrease in guided bomb strikes in recent days. If our border area has seen from 30 to 60 guided bomb strikes per day, now no more than 10," Oleh Syniehubov, the governor, told national TV.


He added though that Russia continued attacking civilian infrastructure, and for that reason regional authorities planned to tighten curfew rules for some 100 settlements near the border and the front line.

Moscow denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in its invasion of Ukraine. Thousands of people have been killed and injured in its attacks.

At the same time, regional authorities in the neighbouring Sumy region, adjacent to Russia's Kursk region, reported an unprecedented number of airstrikes following the launch of the biggest border incursion into Russia during more than 29 months old full-scale war.