- The Luhansk region is the most difficult place, says the President of Ukraine
- Russia has artillery advantage while Ukraine calls for heavy weapons
- Putin to commemorate the day 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
June 22 (Reuters) – Ukrainian and Russian forces entrenched themselves on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, a day commemorating the two countries to commemorate the anniversary of Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union .
The months-long war has fueled Russia in recent weeks because of its large artillery-fire advantage, a fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged in a speech on Tuesday afternoon.
“Thanks to tactical maneuvers, the Ukrainian army is strengthening its defenses in the Luhansk region,” he said. “This is really the most difficult point. The occupiers are also pushing hard towards Donetsk.”
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The Luhansk and Donetsk provinces together are known as the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“And as actively as we fight for a positive EU decision on Ukraine’s candidate status, we also fight every day for modern armaments for our country. We don’t give up a single day,” Zelenskiy said. urging his country’s supporters to speed up the delivery of weapons.
In a symbolic decision, Ukraine will become an official candidate for the European Union on Thursday, EU diplomats said.
According to some military analysts, Russia’s failure to make great strides since it invaded Ukraine on February 24 means that time is on the side of the Ukrainians.
“It’s a heavyweight boxing match. In 2 months of fighting, there has not been a coup yet. Hertling, former commander of the US ground forces in Europe. , wrote on Twitter.
“PREPARED PROVOCATIONS”
June 22 is an important date in Russia – the “Day of Remembrance and Pain” – which marks when Hitler’s Nazi Germany forces invaded the Soviet Union during World War II. It also commemorates Ukraine and neighboring Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. The war there lasted 1,418 days as of June 22, 1941, and historians estimate that some 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine to eliminate the Nazis, must lay flowers to honor the dead.
The Ukrainian government and its Western supporters say Putin has used a false pretext to wage an unprovoked war of aggression on his neighbor.
To commemorate the anniversary, the Russian Defense Ministry released documents on Wednesday dating back to the start of World War II that show that Germany intended to claim that the Soviet army was bombing churches and cemeteries to justify their invasion.
“Just like today, in 1941, the Nazis prepared provocations in advance to discredit our state,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russian forces and separatists in eastern Ukraine made advances on Tuesday, advancing on the city of Lysychansk, the main stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the Donbas.
In some of the bloodiest fighting in Europe since World War II, Russia has been slowly advancing on the Donbas since April in a conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
The Donetsk separatist People’s Republic had recognized more than 2,000 soldiers killed and nearly 9,000 wounded since the beginning of the year, according to British military intelligence. That was equivalent to about 55 percent of its original strength, he said.
Some of the fighting has been extended on the Siverskyi Donets River, which crosses the Donbas, with Russian forces mainly on the east bank and Ukrainian forces mainly on the west.
But Ukrainian troops, and an estimated 500 civilians, are still resisting at a chemical plant in the eastern shore of Sievierodonetsk.
Luhansk Provincial Governor Serhiy Gaidai said the Russians were advancing on Lysychansk, attacking police buildings, state security and prosecutors, taking settlements and attacking the city with planes.
Oleskiy Arestovych, Zelenskiy’s adviser, said Russian forces could cut off Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“The threat of a Russian tactical victory is there, but they have not yet done so,” he said in an online video.
Attacks have escalated in the northeastern Kharkiv region, with at least 15 civilians killed by Russian bombing, its governor said on Tuesday.
“Russian forces are now hitting the city of Kharkiv in the same way they used to attack Mariupol, with the aim of terrorizing the population,” Arestovych said. “The idea is to create a big problem to distract us.”
Reuters could not immediately confirm the battlefield accounts.
In retaliation for Western sanctions, Russia has begun pumping lower volumes of gas into Europe via Ukraine.
European Union states have outlined measures to deal with a supply crisis after the invasion put energy at the center of an economic battle between Russia and the West. Read more
Russia warned Lithuania on Tuesday that it would face “serious negative impact” measures to block some rail shipments to the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.
Estonia, the Baltic nation, expressed solidarity with Lithuania and called on the Russian ambassador to protest an “extremely serious” violation of its airspace by a Russian helicopter. Read more
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Reuters bureaux report; Written by Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast; Edited by Richard Pullin and Robert Birsel
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