Rare drone video shows scale of destruction in Vovchansk, Ukraine’s embattled front line town
Associated PressVOVCHANSK, Ukraine — Smoking piles of rubble and the bombed-out shells of residential buildings are all that remains of the town of Vovchansk in Ukraine’s northeast, rare drone video obtained by The Associated Press showed. Ukraine currently controls 70% of the town, which had a pre-war population of 17,000, and is engaged in deadly battles to dislodge enemy troops after a surprise May 10 Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region sent thousands of civilians fleeing at the height of pitched battles. President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use American-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia, according to officials on Thursday, but only near the Kharkiv region. Until now, Ukraine has been prohibited from using Western-supplied weapons to attack Russia itself, and Ukrainians have long argued that Moscow enjoys a great advantage when it attacks the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia, because it can amass troops and launch deadly attacks from within in its own territory.