- Ukrainian and Russian forces fighting street by street
- City under day, night bombing, says Ukraine
- Sievierodonetsk key to Russia’s war goal
- British, Moroccan sentenced to death in separatist Donbas
- Concern is growing over the food crisis as Russia blocks ports
Kyiv, June 10 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces maintain their positions in heavy street fighting and day and night bombing in Sievierodonetsk, officials say as Russia pushes for control of the bombed city, key to its goal of controlling eastern Ukraine.
Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, are the last Ukrainian-controlled parts of Luhansk Province, which Russia is determined to take as one of its main war targets.
Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said on Thursday that the situation in Sievierodonetsk was “extremely complicated” and that Russian forces were concentrating all their forces in the area.
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“They don’t save their people, they only send men like cannon fodder … they bomb our military day and night,” Danilov told Reuters in an interview.
Ukraine says its only hope of turning the tide in its favor in the small industrial town is more artillery to offset Russia’s great firepower.
In a rare update of the city, the commander of the battalion of the Svoboda National Guard of Ukraine, Petro Kusyk, said that the Ukrainians were attracting the Russians to the street fight to neutralize their artillery advantage.
“Yesterday was a success for us: we launched a counter-offensive and in some areas we managed to push them back one or two blocks. In others they pushed us back, but only for a building or two,” he said in an interview. televised.
But he said his forces were suffering from a “catastrophic” lack of counter-battery artillery to fire on Russia’s weapons, and getting those weapons would transform the battlefield.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.
In the south, where Russia is trying to impose its dominance on an area of occupied territory that covers Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, Ukraine’s defense ministry said it had captured new ground in a counterattack in Kherson province.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening speech that Ukraine has “some positive developments in the Zaporizhzhia region, where we are managing to disrupt the occupiers’ plans.” He gave no details.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground in Zaporizhzhia or Kherson. Representatives installed by Russia in both provinces say they are planning referendums to join Russia.
Thousands have died and millions have fled since Russia launched its “special military operation” to disarm and “deactivate” its neighbor on February 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion a war of unprovoked aggression.
Speaking in Moscow to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Russian Tsar Peter the Great, President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel between what he described as his historic quest to reclaim what he called Russian lands. Read more
“Peter the Great fought in the Great Northern War for 21 years. It looks like he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He didn’t take anything from them, he came back (which was the one in Russia),” Putin said. .
‘WE STAY’
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said about 10,000 civilians were still trapped in the city, about a tenth of its pre-war population.
West Sievierodonetsk, Russia is pushing from the north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, which includes Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk province.
Russia on Thursday bombed more than 20 cities in Donetsk and Luhansk, destroying or damaging 49 homes, several manufacturing plants, farm buildings and a railway station, the Ukrainian military said. Two civilians were killed, he said.
Russia says it is not targeting civilians.
“Attempts by sabotage groups to infiltrate the area have increased. But we see them and prevent them from entering the area,” said Ivan, a Ukrainian soldier at the front in New York, Donetsk.
In Soledar, a salt mining town near Bakhmut, near the first line, the buildings had been destroyed in craters.
The rest of the residents, mostly elderly people, took refuge in a crowded cellar. Antonina, 65, had ventured to see her garden. “We stayed. We live here. We were born here,” he sobbed. “When will it all be over?”
The devastated eastern port of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops for months until it fell, is now at risk of a major cholera outbreak, the British Defense Ministry said on Friday.
There is likely to be a critical shortage of drugs in Kherson, the British Ministry of Defense said in a Twitter update. Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population of Russian-occupied territories, he added.
GRA
In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, one of Russia’s representatives in eastern Ukraine, a court sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.
Britain condemned the court’s decision as a “simulated sentence” without legitimacy. Read more
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain and edible oil, and in recent weeks international attention has focused on the threat of international famine caused by the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
“Millions of people could starve to death if the Russian Black Sea blockade continues,” Zelenskiy said in televised statements.
Russia blames Western crisis on Western sanctions for restricting its own grain exports. He says he is willing to let Ukrainian ports open for exports if Ukraine removes mines and meets other conditions. Ukraine considers these offers empty promises.
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Additional reports from Reuters offices; Written by Michael Perry; Edited by Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill
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