The town of Vovchansk in the northern Kharkiv region, liberated from Russian occupation more than 18 months ago, awoke Friday to intense shelling and aerial bombardment. Russia has found another way of stretching Ukraine’s already thin blue line.

Russian military forces launched a new series of assaults on the region around the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, leading to thousands of evacuations from the area.

Russian ground forces mounted a new assault to push into Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region, seeking to capitalize on Kyiv’s shortage of weapons and soldiers.