KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) – Russia claimed to have invaded a key railway core while its troops were fighting Ukrainian defenders on the streets of another city in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the Lyman railway center had been “completely liberated” by a joint force of Kremlin-backed Russian and separatist soldiers.
Meanwhile, nearly 40 miles (60 kilometers) to the east, Russian troops tried to encircle Ukrainian defenders at the Sievierodonetsk manufacturing center on Saturday, where fighting cut off food and mobile phone service and terrorized civilians who had not fled.
Failing to capture the capital of Ukraine Kyiv at the beginning of the three-month war, the Russians set out to seize parts of the industrial region of eastern Donbas that was not yet controlled by pro-Moscow separatists. . They made great progress in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up the Donbas.
Lyman’s control would give the Russian army another foothold in the region. It has bridges for troops and equipment to cross the Siverskiy Donets River, which has so far prevented Russian advance on the Donbas.
Ukrainian officials have sent contradictory signals to Lyman. On Friday, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian troops were in control of most and were trying to pressure their offensive on Bakhmut, another city in the region. On Saturday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar disputed Moscow’s claim that Lyman had fallen, saying the fight there was still going on.
In his video address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as “very complicated” and said that “the Russian army is trying to get at least some results” by focusing its efforts there. .
As his offensive progressed, Russian President Vladimir Putin pressured European leaders to stop arming Ukrainian assailants and blamed Western sanctions for an emerging global food crisis. The Kremlin said Putin put pressure on his case in an 80-minute phone call on Saturday with leaders in France and Germany.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the chancellor’s spokesman, and called on Putin to start serious and direct negotiations with Zelenskyy to end the fighting. .
A Kremlin reading of the call said Putin claimed “the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue.” The three leaders, who had spent weeks without speaking during the spring, agreed to keep in touch, he added.
But Russia’s recent progress in eastern Ukraine could further fuel Putin.
“If Russia manages to seize these areas, the Kremlin will likely consider it a substantive political achievement and the Russian people will present themselves as proof of the invasion,” the British Defense Ministry said in an assessment on Saturday.
Russia has stepped up efforts to capture the cities of Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, which are the last major Ukrainian-controlled areas in Luhansk.
Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai reported that Ukrainian fighters repelled an assault on Sievierodonetsk, but Russian troops still pushed to encircle them. He later said that Russian forces had seized a hotel on the outskirts of the city, damaged 14 high-rise buildings and were fighting in the streets with Ukrainian forces.
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said there were fights at the city bus station. A humanitarian center was unable to operate due to the danger, Striuk said, and mobile phone service and electricity were cut off. And residents risked exposure to the bombings to get water from half a dozen wells, he said.
Some supply routes are working and evacuations of the injured are still possible, Striuk said. An estimated 1,500 civilians in the city, which had a pre-war population of about 100,000, have died as a result of the fighting, as well as a lack of medicines and diseases that could not be treated.
Just south of Sievierodonetsk, Associated Press reporters saw large, sick civilians grouped in soft bunks and slowly descending the stairs of the apartment building on Friday in Bakhmut.
Svetlana Lvova, the manager of two buildings in Bakhmut, tried to persuade reluctant residents to leave, but said she and her husband would not evacuate until her son, who was in Sievierodonetsk, returned home.
“I need to know she’s alive. That’s why I’m staying here,” said Lvova, 66.
On Saturday, people who managed to escape from Lysychansk described the intensified bombing, especially over the past week, which left them unable to get out of the basement air raid shelters.
Yanna Skakova left the city on Friday with her 18-month-old and 4-year-old children and cried as she sat on a train bound for western Ukraine. Her husband stayed to take care of her house and the animals.
“It’s too dangerous to stay there now,” he said, wiping away his tears.
Russia’s advance has raised fears that residents may experience the same horrors as in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which suffered a three-month siege before falling last week. Residents who had not yet fled were faced with the option of trying it now or staying. Mariupol became a symbol of mass destruction and human suffering, as well as Ukraine’s determination to defend the country.
The port of Mariupol has reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces cleared the mines in the Sea of Azov. The Russian state news agency Tass reported that a ship bound for Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia entered port early Saturday.
In a call with Macron and Scholz, the Kremlin said, Putin stressed that Russia was working to “establish a peaceful life in Mariupol and other liberated cities in the Donbas.”
Ukrainian authorities have reported that Kremlin-based officials in confiscated cities have begun broadcasting Russian news, entering Russian area codes, importing Russian school curricula and taking other measures to annex the areas.
The Russian-controlled areas of southern Kherson region have shifted to Moscow time and “will no longer change to daylight saving time, as is usual in Ukraine,” the state news agency was quoted as saying. Russian RIA Novosti, citing Krill Stremousov, a local official based in Russia. saying Saturday.
In his speech on Saturday, Zelenskyy also accused Russian forces of preventing Kherson residents from leaving, saying they were effectively “trying to take people hostage” in a “sign of weakness”.
The war has caused food shortages worldwide because Ukraine is a major exporter of cereals and other commodities. Moscow and Kyiv have negotiated charges over which side is responsible for keeping shipments tied, with Russia saying Ukraine’s sea mines prevented safe passage and Ukraine citing a Russian naval blockade.
The press service of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said that two Russian ships “capable of carrying up to 16 missiles” were ready for action in the Black Sea, adding that only the sea routes established through treaties multilaterals can be considered safe.
Ukrainian officials have called on Western nations for more sophisticated and powerful weapons. The U.S. Department of Defense did not confirm a CNN report on Friday that said the Biden administration was preparing to send long-range rocket systems.
Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoliy Antonov, said on Saturday that the move would be “unacceptable” and warned the White House to “abandon statements about Ukraine’s military victory.”
Moscow is also trying to awaken Sweden and Finland’s determination to join NATO. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its navy successfully launched a new hypersonic missile from the Barents Sea that hit its target some 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away.
If confirmed, the launch could pose problems for NATO’s trips to the Arctic and North Atlantic. The Zircon, described as the fastest non-ballistic missile in the world, may be armed with a conventional or nuclear warhead and is said to be impossible to stop with current defense systems.
Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Russia would form new military units in the west of the country in response to offers from Sweden and Finland to join NATO.
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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Andrew Katell in New York, and AP journalists from around the world contributed.
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