KYIV: Ukraine sees no risk of a ground assault on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, despite a new offensive against the region that included more than 30,000 Russian troops, Ukraine’s security council chief said Monday.

Russia launched a surprise offensive into Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region last Friday, making small advances into a border zone it was pushed back from nearly two years ago.

“At the moment, Russian actions in the border area are ongoing,” Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the newly appointed secretary of Ukraine’s security council told AFP in an interview.

“We can say that we don’t see any threat of assault on the city of Kharkiv.”

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“But there are a lot of Russians, quite a lot. About 50,000 were on the border. Now there are much more than 30,000 coming,” he said.

He said the Russian offensive was likely aimed at creating a “buffer zone” to limit Ukraine’s ability to strike Russia’s border regions.

Moscow claims to have made small inroads in the Kharkiv region, capturing several villages and advancing towards the border town of Vovchansk, where Ukraine has reported heavy shelling.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said Monday that more than 30 towns and villages “were struck by enemy artillery and mortar attacks”, wounding at least nine people.

Just days into the new offensive, Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked long-running defence minister Sergei Shoigu, replacing him with economist Andrei Belousov.

Commenting on the military shake-up, Lytvynenko said Belousov was an “experienced manager capable of ensuring a long-term war of attrition” with “serious ties” to Russian intelligence.

“This suggests that Putin is planning a war for a long period of time ahead. And a war not only with Ukraine, but with the West as a whole. A war with NATO,” Lytvynenko said.