LAST UPDATE: 18:54
The Russian military said today that Ukrainian troops were withdrawing from the eastern Ukrainian city of Sheverodonetsk, where heavy fighting is raging between Kyiv and Kremlin troops.
“Units of the Ukrainian army, having suffered critical losses during the battles for Sheverodonetsk (up to 90% in many units), are withdrawing to Lisichansk,” a large neighboring city on the other side of the Donetsk River, the statement said. Russian Ministry of Defense.
The ministry did not specify how many Ukrainian troops were retreating to Lysichansk. The French Agency was not able to confirm these statements from an independent source.
“The Ukrainian authorities, realizing that it is impossible to resist any longer and hold the Sheverodonetsk industrial zone, ordered a joint tactical group to mine the nitrate and nitric acid tanks at the Azot plant,” the Russian military said.
The same source clarified that this group consists mainly of “survivors” of the 79th Airborne Brigade and members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense.
According to Moscow, the Ukrainian army wants to blow up these chemical tanks to contaminate the area and “delay” the attack of Russian troops.
Russian forces are seeking control of the entire Donbass basin, which has been under partial control since 2014 by pro-Russian separatist forces backed by Moscow. The city of Sheverodonetsk, along with neighboring Lisichansk, located about 80 kilometers from the Ukrainian regional administrative capital Kramatorsk, are considered the keys to achieving this.
Before the war, Severodonetsk had about 100,000 inhabitants.
Negotiations with Russia after the reinforcement with Western weapons, the Ukrainians say
Ukraine wants to strengthen its position on the ground with the help of new arms deliveries from the West before resuming peace talks with Russia, Ukrainian negotiator David Arahamia was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“Our armed forces are ready to use (the new weapons) … and then I think we can start a new round of talks from a strengthened position,” he told Ukrainian national television on Friday.
Ukraine has said it has recaptured part of the industrial city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region, the epicenter of a Russian offensive to occupy eastern Donbass.
Kyiv said today that there was no point in negotiating with Moscow until Russian forces had retreated as far as possible to Ukraine’s border with Russia.
Mikhail Pontolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, made the remarks when asked about an offer by French President Emanuel Macron to mediate talks between Kiev and Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
“… Until we take up arms as a whole, until we strengthen our positions, until we push back (the Russian forces) as far back as possible to the borders of Ukraine, there is no point in negotiating,” Pontoliak said. on television.
Macron, who seeks to maintain dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, said the West should not humiliate Russia in order to keep the door open for a solution. to be achieved through diplomacy.
Ukraine, which says Russia has already occupied about 20 percent of its territory, is now receiving more powerful weapons from the West.
Yesterday, the head of the Ukrainian negotiators, David Arahamia, said that Ukraine wants to strengthen its military positions on the field with the help of new arms deliveries from the West before resuming peace talks with Russia.
Among other things, the United States will supply Ukraine with HIMARS precision missile systems that will allow it to hit Russian positions from a longer range.
The Russians blow up bridges in Severodonetsk
Russian forces are blowing up bridges over the Seversky Donetsk River to prevent Ukraine from bringing in military aid and delivering aid to civilians in the city of Severnodonetsk, the Luhansk region governor said on Saturday.
In a televised address, Sergei Gaidai stated that the Ukrainian army continues to hold its positions inside Severdonodetsk and repels Russian forces in many locations.
At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced today that its forces shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane carrying weapons and ammunition near the port of Odessa in the Black Sea.
The ministry stressed that Russian missiles also hit an artillery training center in the Sumy region of Ukraine where foreign trainers were working.
Another strike destroyed an outpost of “foreign mercenaries” in the Odessa region, he added.
* Ukraine: Russian army gathers forces around Slovyansk
Source: Capital
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