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Ukraine: Citizens Urged to Leave Lysichansk

LAST UPDATE: 12.27

The Russian region of Odessa in southern Ukraine has been hit by a Russian missile and six victims, including a child, have been reported so far, the Ukrainian military said in a statement.

During the Ukrainian army, the missile was fired by a Russian strategic bomber Tupolev Tu-22. It is not clear whether the term victims refers to injuries or deaths.

The bomber struck shortly after noon in a residential area, destroying several residential buildings and agricultural facilities within a 500-square-meter radius, according to the local Ukrainian military administration.

The fire brigade is trying to extinguish the fires caused by the rocket strike.

Ukraine recorded a rise in Russian missile strikes over the weekend, many of which took place in areas far from the front: Lviv (west), Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Kyiv. In the south, Mykolaif and Odessa were hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the G7 summit later today.

Regional governor calls on citizens to evacuate the Ukrainian city of Lysichansk

Regional authorities today called on civilians to leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Lisichansk, which is under attack by Russian forces.

“Dear residents of the Lisichansk city community and their relatives! Due to the real threat to life and health, we urge you to leave immediately,” Luhansk District Governor Serhiy Gaidai wrote in the Telegram message.

He said the situation in the city was “very difficult”, but did not specify how many civilians remained there. About 100,000 people lived in the city before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Gaidai said earlier today that Lisichansk was suffering “catastrophic damage” from the bombings as Russian forces targeted the city after the fall of neighboring Sheverodonetsk over the weekend.

The armed forces in Ukraine said today that Russian forces were using artillery to cut off Lisichansk from the south. Russian warplanes also struck near Lisichansk, the staff said in a daily update.

It is noted that on the 123rd day of the war in Ukraine, yesterday Sunday, the Russian troops focused their attacks on Lysitshansk, the day after the formalization of the occupation of its twin city, Sheverondonietsk, on the other side of the river Donets, while they also fired – among others – the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, for the first time in three weeks.

Russian forces are using artillery to cut off access to Lisichansk from the south, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. Political and military infrastructure were also affected, according to the same source, although this information could not be independently verified.

Lisichansk is the last city controlled by Ukrainian forces in the Luhansk region. Russian troops are already on its borders.

Earlier, a nine-storey apartment building was hit by a Russian missile strike, killing at least one person and injuring at least seven others, and many were trapped in the rubble, according to Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

While fighting is raging in eastern Ukraine, the situation in Kyiv has been relatively calm in recent months.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said a rocket hit a kindergarten in the Shevchenko district.

A seven-year-old girl and her mother were found alive in the wreckage, according to Mayor Klitschko. The building is located very close to the Artem weapons factory, which has been repeatedly targeted by Russian attacks.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Khoncharenko said a total of 14 rockets hit the capital and its suburbs early yesterday.

Russian forces also hit the central Cherkasy region, killing one person and wounding five others, officials said.

A video uploaded to social media sites shows a damaged bridge connecting the two banks of the Dnipro River. Ukrainian railways said they had temporarily suspended services around Cherkasy.

Pro-Russian separatists, meanwhile, said they had evacuated 250 civilians from the shelters of the Nitrogen chemical plant in Severodonetsk after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city.

Some 200 civilians, including small children, were evacuated from the factory on Saturday, the spokesman for the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic in Moscow, Radion Mirosnik, told Telegram. However, it is not clear where they were led. There was also talk of a much larger number of civilians taking refuge in the factory.

The commander of Ukrainian forces in Lugansk said 568 civilians were in the factory shelters before his men left.

At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that it hit three training centers in the north and west with Cruise “Caliber” missiles, among them one in the Staritsy region, in the Lviv region, about thirty kilometers from the Ukrainian-Polish border.

Developments on the battlefield were being recorded as G7 leaders began discussing in Bavaria ways to increase pressure on Russia. German Chancellor Olaf Solz condemned the “barbaric” attack in Kyiv, saying it intensified the need for the G7 leaders to “unite and support the Ukrainians in defending their country”.

Proposals to escalate pressure on Moscow and offer military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, as well as the impact of the conflict on the sharp rise in energy and food prices, will be on the agenda.

The G7 leaders have already announced a ban on imports of Russian gold, and are also expected to consider a proposal to limit Russian oil prices.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the summit via video link.

It was also reported yesterday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, although it is not clear exactly where.

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to make his first foreign trips to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan after ordering an invasion of Ukraine. He will travel first to Tajikistan, an ally of Moscow, and then to Turkmenistan for a summit of the Caspian states the day after Wednesday, according to a source quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

To date, there is no overall report of war victims, which is undoubtedly extremely heavy. According to the UN, it is confirmed that 4,500 civilians were killed and another 5,500 were injured by June 15, but these numbers “are probably much higher,” he said.

At the military level, Western sources put the death toll at 15,000 to 20,000, while Ukrainian forces are losing some 100 men a day in Kyiv. No independently verified accounts are available.

More than 7 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, according to the UN. To these are added eight million who have gone abroad. Prior to the Russian invasion, Ukraine counted 37 million people in Kiev-controlled territories. These do not include residents of Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

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