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Zelensky calls for a new round of “even stronger” EU sanctions against Russia.
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Kremlin-based officials set up a company to sell Ukrainian grain.
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Ukrainians in the occupied southern regions issued Russian passports.
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Nearly 800 children have been killed or wounded in the war, according to Ukraine.
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A civilian was killed in an explosion on Odessa beach amid growing concern about mines.
Ukrainian and British officials warned on Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons capable of causing massive casualties as they try to advance in the capture of eastern Ukraine as fierce and protracted fighting depletes the resources of both sides.
Russian bombers have probably been firing heavy anti-missile missiles since the 1960s in Ukraine, the UK Defense Ministry said. Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead; when used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, “they are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause serious and low collateral damage,” the ministry said.
Both sides have spent large amounts of weapons on what has become a war of attrition, now in its 108th day, for the eastern region of mines and coal factories known as the Donbas, putting great strain on the its resources and stocks.
Russia is likely to be using 5.5-ton anti-missile missiles because it lacks more accurate modern missiles, the British ministry said. He did not give details of where exactly these missiles are believed to have been deployed.
Ukrainian troops fired a multiple rocket launcher on Saturday near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Izyum. (Anatolii Stepanov / AFP / Getty Images)
As Russia also sought to consolidate its dominance over the war-torn territory, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow “is what happens when the oppressors step on the rules that protect us all. “
“That’s what happens when the great powers decide that their imperial appetites are more important than the rights of their peaceful neighbors,” Austin said during a visit to Asia. “And it’s a foretaste of a possible world of chaos and unrest in which none of us would want to live.”
Flamethrower used in Luhansk, the governor alleges
A Ukrainian governor has accused Russia of using firearms in a village in Luhansk Oblast, in eastern Ukraine, southwest of the fiercely contested cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Although the use of flamethrowers on the battlefield is legal, Serhii Haidai, governor of Luhansk Province, alleged that the nightly attacks on Vrubivka caused widespread damage to civilian facilities and an unknown number of victims.
“At night, the enemy used a system of rocket launchers: many houses burned,” Haidai wrote in the Telegram on Saturday. The accuracy of his statement could not be immediately verified.
Severodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk are the last large areas of Luhansk province to remain under Ukrainian control. Haidai said the Russians destroyed railway depots, a brick factory and a glass factory.
The Ukrainian army said on Saturday that Russian forces should also launch an offensive in the city of Sloviansk, located in Donetsk province. Donetsk and Luhansk together form the Donbas,
Moscow-backed rebels have controlled self-proclaimed republics in both provinces since 2014, and Russia is trying to seize territory still in Ukraine’s hands.
Zelensky calls for more EU sanctions on Russia
During a visit to Kyiv by the top European Union official, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky called for a new round of “even stronger” EU sanctions against Russia.
Zelensky called for new sanctions to be targeted at more Russian officials, including judges, and to hamper the activities of all Russian banks, including the bank of gas giant Gazprom, as well as all Russian companies that help Moscow. either way “.
He spoke during a brief press briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the heavily guarded presidential office in the Ukrainian capital. Von der Leyen was on his second visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the right, is seen on Saturday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv. (Natacha Pisarenko / The Associated Press)
The couple talked about Ukraine’s aspirations to become a member of the EU. Zelensky, speaking through a translator, said that Ukraine will “do everything” to integrate into the bloc.
“Russia wants to divide Europe, it wants to weaken Europe,” he said.
Von der Leyen said the EU’s executive arm was “working day and night” on an assessment of Ukraine’s eligibility as an EU candidate. The goal is to have the review ready to share with the 27 existing members of the blog by the end of next week.
Zelensky and some EU supporters want Ukraine to join the EU quickly. Von der Leyen described the accession process as “a path based on merit” and called on Ukraine to strengthen its rule of law, fight corruption and modernize its institutions.
He praised Ukraine’s “strength and resilience” in the face of Russia’s “horrific and atrocious” invasion and said the EU would help rebuild the country.
Russia creates a company to sell Ukrainian grain
Officials stationed by Russia in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine have set up a company to buy local grain and resell it on behalf of Moscow, a local representative told Interfax news agency on Saturday.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of stealing Ukrainian grain and causing a global food crisis that could result in millions starving to death.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russian interim administration in Zaporizhzhia, said the new state-owned grain company has taken control of several facilities.
Anti-tank obstacles are seen on Saturday in a wheat field in southern Ukraine from Mykolaiv. (Genya Savilov / AFP / Getty Images)
He said “the grain will be Russian” and “we don’t care who the buyer is.”
It was not clear whether the farmers whose grain Russia was selling were collecting. Balitsky said his administration would not appropriate the strength of cereals or pressure producers to sell them.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office accused the Russian army of bombing and burning grain fields before the harvest. Andriy Yermak claimed that Moscow was “trying to repeat” a Soviet-era famine that claimed the lives of more than three million Ukrainians in 1932-33.
TARGET | Exports of grain from Ukraine hampered by Russian invasion:
Exports of grain from Ukraine obstructed by the Russian invasion
More than 20 million tons of harvested Ukrainian grain are trapped within the country due to the blockade of Russia’s major ports.
“Our soldiers are putting out the fires, though [Russia’s] “Food terrorism must be stopped,” Yermak told Telegram on Saturday.
The accuracy of his and Balitsky’s claims could not be independently verified.
Russian passports for residents in Ukraine
Russian forces occupying parts of southern Ukraine began handing Russian passports to local residents on Saturday.
In the Kherson region, 23 residents accepted Russian passports, including the new governor installed in Moscow, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
“For me, this is a truly historic moment. I have always thought that we are one country and one people,” the news agency was quoted as saying by Governor Volodymyr Balance.
TARGET | Kherson residents describe strict conditions:
Residents of the Russian-controlled city of Kherson describe strict conditions
Tens of thousands of residents of the Russian-controlled city of Kherson in southern Ukraine have fled since the start of the invasion of Moscow. Those who remain say that challenging Russia has consequences.
Russian forces have also begun issuing passports to the occupied city of Melitopol, according to Russian state news agency TASS. A TASS Telegram publication cited a local official based in Russia as the original source of the information.
He did not specify how many residents had applied for or received Russian citizenship.
Melitopol is located outside the Donbas, in the Zaporizhzhia region, which is still part of Ukraine.
Number of deaths among children
Nearly 800 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
According to a statement from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, at least 287 children died as a result of military activity, while at least 492 others were injured.
The statement stressed that the figures were not definitive and said that they were based on the investigations of juvenile prosecutors.
The office said that children in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk suffered more, with 217 dead or injured, compared to 132 and 116, respectively, in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
A civilian is killed in an explosion on the beach
Odessa city officials said Saturday that a man was killed in an explosion while visiting a Black Sea beach, where mines are a growing concern.
The city council has reported via Telegram that the man was there with his wife and son, despite warnings to stay away from the beaches in the area. He was testing the temperature and depth of the water when the explosion occurred.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of laying mines in the Black Sea.