Ukraine: Russia occupies most of Severodonetsk

As Russian troops occupied most of the city of Severodonetsk after heavy fighting on Wednesday, the Ukrainian government spoke of territorial gains in the south, while Western states pledged to send more military aid to Kyiv from Moscow.

The occupation of Severodonetsk is of great importance to Russia, as it is the temporary capital of the Luhansk region. Moscow intends to occupy the entire Donbas basin, as eastern Ukraine is called, an area with a significant industrial base.

Russian troops have “partially succeeded” in the battle for Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian general staff acknowledged on Wednesday, acknowledging that they now control its eastern part, but stressing that fierce hostilities continue to unfold in other areas.

Pro-Russian separatists in the region have claimed control of more than 70 percent of the city, and Andrei Marotsko, a spokesman for the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Lugansk, has vowed to take over.

According to Mr. Marotsko, most Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the city and Russia will begin to distribute humanitarian aid due to the catastrophic situation.

Donbass has been at the heart of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine for years. Pro-Russian separatists have controlled large parts of the Luhansk and Danieck regions since 2014.

For its part, the Ukrainian army claimed to have recaptured some twenty villages in the Kherson region (south). He explained that he had launched a counterattack from the city of Dnipro and that his forces were still pushing to advance south.

Although this information is impossible to verify independently, various sources say in recent days that Ukrainian forces are advancing on Kherson, the only regional capital that has fallen into the hands of the Russian army at this stage.

In western Ukraine, transport infrastructure was the target of multiple Russian missile strikes last night, according to a Telegram post by Lviv military chief Maxim Kozicki. According to initial reports, there were only two injuries. Earlier yesterday, it was announced that two civilians in Mykolaif had been killed by Russian artillery bombardment.

At the same time, the promises of Western states continue to send more advanced weapons to the Ukrainian army, something that triggered the condemnation of the Kremlin, for which the West in general and the United States in particular are adding fuel to the fire.

“We believe that the United States is deliberately and diligently raising the flames (…) The United States is insisting on continuing the war with Russia to the last Ukrainian,” said Dmitry Peshkov, a spokesman for the Russian presidency, following the US announcement. and Germany for sending more advanced weapons.

Mr Peshkov added that Moscow did not believe the US and Ukrainian assurances that the HIMARS multi-missile launchers the US intended to send to Ukraine were for defense purposes only. He clarified that the Russian army considers them an immediate threat and will act accordingly.

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that continued arms deliveries from the West increase the risk that countries sending them could end up in the war.

“There are such dangers, of course,” Lavrov said during a visit to Saudi Arabia. “This is a challenge, with the aim of involving the West in military matters,” he said.

Some politicians in the West are aware of the danger, but not all, especially in the “north wing” of the European Union, he added. There are, he said, “politicians willing to get involved in this madness to advance their own ambitions.” However, there are also responsible countries, which understand that such scenarios are not “acceptable”, he added.

Yesterday, Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dedicated much of his sermon to children killed, injured or missing because of the war.

So far, he stressed, 243 children have been killed, another 689 have been injured and 139 are missing, he continued, emphasizing that these numbers refer only to “what we know what happened”. “Eternal memory of those who lost their lives in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” he added. Mr Zelensky also complained that 200,000 children had been “displaced” from Ukrainian territory to Russia, calling it a “grave war crime”.

The war, which began on February 24, is coming to an end in a hundred days.

SOURCE: AMPE