As Kyiv intensifies its calls for longer-range weapons from the West to help it fight in the Donbas region, Russian forces intensify its assault on the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, after claiming to have captured the nearby Lyman railway core.
Key points:
- Russia has demanded control of a critical railway core, but Ukraine says the battle for the city continues
- French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin
- In his nightly speech, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “Donbas will be Ukrainian.”
Russia’s slow and solid gains in recent days point to a subtle shift in the momentum of the war, now in its fourth month.
The invading forces appear on the verge of seizing the entire Luhansk region of Donbas, one of the most modest war targets set by the Kremlin after abandoning its assault on Kyiv in the face of Ukrainian resistance.
At a local time on Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops and Allied separatist forces now had full control of Lyman, the site of a railroad crossing west of the Siverskyi Donets River in the region of Donetsk, a neighbor of Luhansk.
Ukraine’s train system has transported weapons and evacuated citizens via Lyman, a key railway hub in the east of the country.
Control of this center would also give the Russian army another foothold in the region. It already has bridges for troops and equipment to cross the Siverskiy Donets River, which has so far prevented Russian advance on the Donbas.
However, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said the battle for Lyman continued.
Damaged buildings and a tank can be seen on a road from Lyman satellite imagery. (Satellite image © 2022 Maxar Technologies)
Sievierodonetsk, about 60 kilometers from Lyman, on the east side of the river, and the largest city in Donbas that still has Ukraine, was under heavy Russian assault, according to Ukrainian police, which released on Saturday social media: “Sievierodonetsk is under constant enemy fire.”
Russian artillery was also bombing the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway, which Russia must take to close a pincer movement and encircle Ukrainian forces.
“There was a major destruction in Lysychansk,” police said.
On Friday, the governor of Luhansk, who, along with Donetsk, comprises the Donbas, said Russian troops had already entered Sievierodonetsk.
Ukrainian troops may have to withdraw from the city to avoid capture, Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
It was unclear if they had started retiring on Saturday.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian General Staff said several Russian attacks had affected communities and infrastructure near Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city.
A solar power plant in the region was badly damaged after an apparent missile attack, a Reuters photographer said.
“Donbas will be Ukrainian,” says Zelenskyy
Also on Saturday, Ukrainian presidential adviser and peace talks negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak reiterated a call for the delivery of long-range rocket launchers made in the United States.
U.S. officials told Reuters that such systems were being actively considered, with a possible decision in the coming days.
“It’s hard to fight when you’re attacked from a distance of 70 kilometers and you have nothing to fight with. Ukraine can get Russia back behind the curtain, but we need effective weapons for that,” Podolyak tweeted.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remained defiant in his nightly speech to the Ukrainians.
“If the occupiers think that Lyman and Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas will be Ukrainian,” Zelenskyy said.
In a televised interview, Zelenskyy said he believed Russia would accept talks if Ukraine could regain all the territory it has lost since the invasion began on February 24.
However, Zelensky dismissed the idea of using force to reclaim all the land Ukraine has lost to Russia since 2014, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed that year.
“I don’t think we can restore our entire territory by military means. If we decide to go this route, we will lose hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian army said its troops had repulsed eight assaults on Donetsk and Luhansk in the previous 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence report that if Russia managed to take over these areas, the Kremlin would probably see it as a “substantive political achievement” that it could use to justify their invasion of the Russian people.
Read more about the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
The bombings prevent medical staff from being out of the hospital
The Luhansk governor estimates that 90 percent of Sievierodonetsk’s buildings have been damaged. (Reuters)
Gaidai said 90% of Sievierodonetsk’s buildings were damaged, with 14 high-rise buildings destroyed in the latest bombing.
Dozens of medical personnel remained in Sievierodonetsk, but only had difficulty getting to hospitals due to the bombings, he said.
Reuters was unable to independently verify this information.
Analysts at the Washington-based Institute for War Study said that although Russian forces had begun direct assaults on the built-up areas of Sievierodonetsk, they were likely to have trouble occupying the ground. in the same city.
“Russian forces have been underperforming in urbanized operations during the war,” they said.
Russia has said it is conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid it of nationalists threatening Russian-speakers there.
Kyiv and Western countries have said that Russia’s claims are a false pretext for war.
Thousands of people, including many civilians, have been killed and several million have fled their homes, either to safer areas of Ukraine or to other countries.
Putin talks to French and German leaders
Ukraine is a major exporter of grain. (AP: Bernat Armangue)
Driving diplomatic efforts to find a solution to a conflict that has multiple ramifications beyond Ukraine’s borders, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a joint phone call on Saturday.
He was urged to lift the Russian blockade of the port of Odessa to allow exports of Ukrainian grain, France said.
The Kremlin said Putin told them Moscow was willing to discuss ways to make it possible for Ukraine to resume grain shipments from Black Sea ports.
Ukraine is a major exporter of cereals and the blockade of its exports threatens to cause food shortages in several countries and throughout Africa.
Meanwhile, the supply of weapons to Kyiv by its allies continued.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the country had begun receiving Harpoon anti-missile missiles from Denmark.
However, Kyiv renewed its calls for greater support.
Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna said NATO had been unable to organize a joint response to the Russian invasion.
“We must speak clearly about the catastrophic consequences for the future of the whole of Europe if Ukraine is defeated. It is a pity that, once again, we must remember the results of past ‘commitments’ with the aggressor,” he said in a statement. Facebook. .
Stefanishyna, in charge of efforts to integrate Ukraine into Europe, said that when NATO leaders hold their summit on June 29-30, “it is important to make very concrete and courageous decisions to strengthen the alliance and capacity. Ukraine’s defense. “
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to search, up and down arrows to get volume.
ABC / children