Ukraine troops reach Russian border

KHARKIV, May 16 (BBC/AFP): Ukraine troops counter-attacking near the north-eastern city of Kharkiv have reached the Russian border, says the regional governor.
The Ukrainian defence ministry has published a video purportedly showing a number of soldiers from a territorial defence brigade at an unspecified location on the frontier.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Sinegubov, said troops had restored a sign marking the border.
"We are proud of the soldiers... who restored the border sign on the state border!" he wrote on Telegram.
"We thank everyone who, risking their lives, liberates Ukraine from Russian invaders," he added.
Russia has committed newly mobilised units from occupied Donetsk and Luhansk to Kharkiv, "further evidence of the inadequacy of Russia's available reserves", the Institute for the Study of War think tank reports.
Ukrainian forces have been retaking territory in north-eastern areas in recent days, pushing the Russians out of artillery range of Kharkiv - which had endured weeks of bombardment. Russia has been continuing its offensive in the Donbas region further south.
Ukraine prepares
for new Russian
Donbas push
Ukraine was preparing Monday for a new Russian push in the eastern Donbas region, as Kyiv said its army's counterattack around Kharkiv had gained momentum.
Since failing to take the capital at the beginning of the invasion in late February, control of Donbas has become one of Moscow's primary objectives-but Western intelligence has predicted its campaign will stall amid heavy losses and fierce resistance.
"We are preparing for new attempts by Russia to attack in Donbas, to somehow intensify its movement in the south of Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
"The occupiers still do not want to admit that they are in a dead-end and their so-called 'special operation' has already gone bankrupt," he added.