Ukrainian service members prepare to transport a Russian tank captured during a counteroffensive operation in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, September 11, 2022. /Reuters
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces are hitting Ukrainian targets in the Kharkiv region as Ukrainian forces kept pushing north on Sunday.
"In the Kharkiv direction, we began to advance not only to the south and east, but also to the north. There are 50km to go to the state border [with Russia]," Ukraine's chief commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Sunday.
He said the country's armed forces have regained control of more than 3,000 square kilometers (1,158 square miles) since the beginning of September.
Russian forces were hitting Ukrainian army positions in the Kharkiv region with precision strikes delivered by airborne troops, missiles and artillery, according to Russia's defence ministry.
Russia ordered troops to leave the area around the city of Izium in the Kharkiv region, TASS reported on Saturday. It also quoted the chief administrator of Russian-controlled parts of the region as telling residents to evacuate to Russia.
A Russian official in a southern region bordering Ukraine said on Sunday that thousands of people had crossed the border as Kyiv's army claimed to have pushed back Moscow's forces in the country's east.
(With input from Reuters)