Ukraine braces for heavy battles as Putin says Russia carving out ‘buffer zone’

News Snapshot:

Fire burns from a strike minutes earlier in the village of Vil’cha near Vovchansk, Ukraine. Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/The New York Times Ukraine’s top commander warned on Friday of “heavy battles” looming on the war’s new front in the northeastern Kharkiv region as Russian president Vladimir Putin said Moscow was carving out a “buffer zone” in the area. Russian forces attacked the Kharkiv region’s north last Friday, making inroads of up to 10km (6 miles) and unbalancing Kyiv’s outnumbered troops who are trying to hold the line over a sprawling front nearly 27 months since the invasion. Colonel-general Oleksandr Syrskyi said...