UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Jul 4 —  Sotnytskyi Kozachok is still under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, Viktor Kovalenko, head of the Zolochiv military administration, told Gwara Media. 

Russia started their new offensive north and northeast in the Kharkiv region in May, but Ukrainian troops have stabilized the frontline in this section since. Now, heavy battles are ongoing in and around Vovchansk (three miles from the border, 46 miles away from Kharkiv) and near Lyptsi (six miles from the border, 12 miles from Kharkiv.)

Viktor Kovalenko said that DeepState [an open-source resource for monitoring the Russian-Ukrainian war] information about the Russian advance towards Sostnytskyi Kozachok is not true. The State Border Guard Service also confirmed this information.

The village is located in the Zolochiv district of the Kharkiv region. Sotnytskyi Kozachok situated right near the Russian border northwest of the Kharkiv region.

Circled village Sotnytskyi Kozachok on DeepStateMap from Jul 4 / Source: deepstatemap.live

“In the Kharkiv region, especially in the direction of Sotnytskyi Kozachok, we see that the enemy is trying to pressure [the area]. But all attempts of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups to enter this area are immediately stopped by Ukrainian soldiers, including border guards, who force them out of Ukraine,” said Andrii Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, during the telethon.

According to Kovalenko, there are currently four people left in the village. Volunteers, police, and the village head are discussing evacuation with them. Kovalenko said that two people were supposed to leave the village yesterday, but didn’t. 

Before the full-scale invasion, 177 people lived in the village. Currently, evacuation is difficult to organize because Russians destroyed all the bridges leading to the village. 

Oleh Ivanov, the evacuation coordinator of the Coordination Humanitarian Center, said during a briefing that, in Sotnytskyi Kozachok, after the Russian sabotage group approached, people who wanted to leave the village were forced to walk to the evacuation site.

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