KRAMATORSK, Ukraine –
Russian troops stormed further into a key city in eastern Ukraine on Monday, fighting street-by-street with Kyiv forces in a battle that has left Sievierodonetsk in ruins. In an attempt to pressure Moscow to end the war, the European Union accepted a partial embargo on Russian oil.
As Moscow’s advance on Sievierodonetsk increased in intensity, Russian forces also bombed parts of northeastern Ukraine and continued fighting for control of a southern region. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had prevented the export of 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain, contributing to a growing global food crisis.
Military analysts described the fight for Sievierodonetsk as part of a race against time by the Kremlin. The city is important for Russian efforts to quickly complete the capture of the eastern industrial region of the Donbas before more Western weapons arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defense. Moscow-backed separatists already had territory in the region and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.
“The Kremlin has ruled that it cannot afford to waste time and should seize the last chance to expand separatist-controlled territory because the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine could make it impossible.” say Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
In a possible setback for Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden appeared to reject reports that the U.S. was considering sending long-range rocket systems to the country.
But the European Union approved additional sanctions on Russia. As part of a long-overdue package of financial support to help Ukraine, EU leaders agreed on Monday to seize most Russian oil imports in the bloc of 27 countries by the end of the year. The deal came after Zelenskyy called on the EU to target Russian oil exports so that Moscow “feels the price of what it is doing against Ukraine.”
The embargo covers Russian oil supplied by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline. EU Council President Charles Michel said the deal covers more than two-thirds of Russia’s oil imports. Ursula Von der Leyen, the EU’s chief executive, said the measure “will effectively reduce about 90% of Russia’s oil imports into the EU by the end of the year”.
In an effort to punish and divide the West for its support of Ukraine, Russia has cut off natural gas to a handful of European countries. In its latest move, Russian state gas giant Gazrpom said it would shut off gas supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerra from Tuesday.
Russia also intensified its actions on the battlefield. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said the situation in the Donbas remains “extremely difficult” as Russia has put the “maximum combat power” of its army there.
The Ukrainian military says Russian forces have strengthened their positions outside Sievierodonetsk, a city 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of the Russian border in an area that is the last control pocket of the Ukrainian government in Luhansk. .
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said the city had been “completely ruined”. The artillery fire has destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90 percent of the buildings, and has severely cut off energy and communications in a city that was once home to 100,000 people, he said.
“The death toll is rising every hour, but we can’t count the dead and wounded in the midst of street fighting,” Striuk told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that Moscow troops were advancing several islands. more towards the city center. .
He said there were only 12,000 to 13,000 residents left, sheltered in basements and bunkers to escape Russian bombing. The situation is reminiscent of the siege of Mariupol, which gripped the neighbors and caused some of the worst suffering of the war. More than 20,000 people are believed to have died in Mariupol.
Striuk estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in Sievierodonetsk since the war began due to Russian attacks and severe conditions that include a lack of medicine and medical treatment.
A 32-year-old French journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, was killed near Sievierodonetsk on Monday when he was hit by shrapnel while covering the evacuations of Ukraine, according to his employer, the French channel BFM TV.
Zelenskyy said Leclerc-Imhoff was the 32nd media worker to die in Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24th.
The governors of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – which make up the Donbas – said six civilians, including the journalist, had been killed in bombings. Authorities in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, also reported that one person was killed in bombings there.
Zelenskyy said Russian troops also bombed the Sumy region near the Russian border, and fighting continued in the southern Kherson region, which has been largely controlled by Russian troops since the early days of Russia. the war. Officials based in Russia there said they would ask the Kremlin to annex it, while Kyiv, in turn, has promised to liberate the region.
The Russian advance on Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk on both sides of the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River is part of a total push, said Zhdanov, the Ukrainian military analyst. He said that the intensity of the latest fighting and the arrival of Russian troops have surprised the Ukrainians, who are trying to hold on until more weapons arrive.
On Monday, Biden told reporters that there are no plans for the United States to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine amid reports that the measure is being considered.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s deputy head of the Security Council, called it a “reasonable” decision. He said that “otherwise, if our cities were attacked, the Russian armed forces would carry out their threat and attack the centers where these criminal decisions are made.”
Medvedev added that “some of them are not in Kyiv.”
In the Kherson region, Russia’s deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told the Russian state news agency Tass that the grain from last year’s harvest is being delivered to Russian buyers, adding that “obviously there is a lot of grain here.”
Russia has pressured the West to lift sanctions against it as it tries to shift the blame for the growing food crisis, which has led to rising prices in Africa.
Zelenskyi accused Moscow of “deliberately creating this problem” and said Russia’s claim that the blame for the sanctions was a lie. He said sanctions have not blocked Russian food and accused Russia of stealing at least half a million tonnes of Ukrainian grain.
Karmanau reported from Lviv. PA journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
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