A grain silo destroyed by Russian airstrikes on the Donbas.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated troops on “liberating” Luhansk province in eastern Ukraine after several weeks of brutal fighting. A large proportion of the area’s infrastructure, including residential buildings, is destroyed and numerous civilians have died, although the total number of deaths is not yet known.
Russian forces are now turning their attention to capturing more parts of the neighboring Donetsk region of the Donbas, and the province will suffer heavy bombing on Sunday, according to local officials.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk province, said it was a “difficult Sunday in the Donetsk region.” [with] rocket attacks and bombings across the region “and described multiple civilian casualties.
Luhansk Regional Governor Serhiy Haidai expects Russian forces to concentrate their attacks on Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk with a population of about 100,000 before the war that was the first to be taken by backed forces. by Russia in 2014. It was recovered by Ukrainian troops three months later.
Haidai also named the city of Bakhmut as a key target for Russia.
Luhansk and Donetsk, collectively known as the Donbas, have for many years been the site of sporadic fighting between Ukrainian and pro-Russian troops. Moscow has described the capture of the Donbas as an “unconditional priority.”
A community art center destroyed in a strike in the city of Lysychansk on the Donbas on June 17, 2022.
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Russia has said its main goal in the war is to “liberate” the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where two pro-Russian separatist “republics” are located.
‘We’ll be coming back’
Ukrainian soldiers defending this eastern territory say they are overwhelmed by Russian firepower. In recent weeks, Russia has gained a significant advantage over the Donbass, as Ukraine gradually ceded key cities and towns.
However, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised that his country will regain its lost land.
“If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points on the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in firepower, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it only means one thing,” Zelenskyy said in his address of Sunday night video.
“That we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons.”
Soldiers travel in a tank while being dragged down the highway on June 20, 2022 near Bakhmut, Ukraine.
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Zelenskyy said Russia had enough multiple rocket launch systems to destroy “city after city in Ukraine” and that the reality is that “they have gathered most of their firepower in the Donbas.”
The president has defended the decision to prioritize lives above the ground and noted: “The fact that we protect the lives of our soldiers, our people, plays an equally important role. We will rebuild the walls, reclaim the land, and the people need to be protected above all else. “
A “Marshall Plan”
Several international leaders of the government, the private sector and NGOs met on Monday in Switzerland to discuss the creation of a “Marshall Plan” for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The assaulted country will need a massive $ 750 billion for its recovery after the invasion of Russia, County Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said as he spoke with international leaders in Switzerland gathered for the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Shmyhal also said that the invasion of Russia has so far caused more than $ 100 billion in damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure. The war has been going on for five months; the longer it continues, the more likely this figure will increase.
Zelenskyy, who spoke to video conference attendees, warned that “really colossal” work was needed to rebuild areas that have already been recaptured by Russian troops. On top of that, “we will have to liberate more than 2,000 towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine,” he said.