In a video overnight, Zelensky said he was proud of the Ukrainian defenders who managed to contain the Russian advance in the Donbass region, which borders Russia and where Moscow-backed separatists control much of the territory. eight years. “Do you remember how in Russia, at the beginning of May, they hoped to occupy all of Donbass?” said the president late Saturday. “It’s already the 108th day of the war, it’s already June. Donbass is holding on.” After failing to occupy Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, at the beginning of the war, Moscow focused on occupying parts of the predominantly Russian-speaking Donbas that were still in the hands of Ukraine, as well as the southern coast of the country. But instead of securing a swift, decisive occupation, Russian forces were drawn into a long, arduous battle, in part thanks to the use of Western-supplied weapons by the Ukrainian army.
The battle for Sheverodonetsk continues
Both Ukrainian and Russian officials have said the battle for control of the eastern city of Sheverodonetsk continues. The city and neighboring Lysychansk are the last large areas of the Luhansk province of Donbas not under the control of pro-Russian guerrillas. Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the separatist-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said the Ukrainian fighters remained in an industrial area of the city, including a chemical plant where civilians had taken refuge since the days of the Russian bombing. Smoke rises after a military attack on a complex of the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region of Ukraine on Friday. (Oleksandr Ratushniak / Reuters) “Sheverodonetsk has not been fully liberated 100 percent,” Pasehnik said on Saturday, adding that Ukrainians were bombing the city from the Nitrogen plant. “So it is impossible to call the situation in Severodonetsk calm, that it is completely ours.” The governor of Luhansk, Serhii Haidai, said on Saturday that a large fire had broken out in the factory during the hours of Russian bombing. Elsewhere in Ukraine, a counterattack pushed the Russians out of parts of the southern Kherson region, which had been occupied by Russian forces at the start of the war, according to Zelensky. Moscow has set up local authorities in Kherson and other occupied coastal areas, offering residents Russian passports, broadcasting Russian newscasts and taking steps to introduce a Russian school curriculum. Zelensky said that although the war did not seem to end, Ukraine should do everything it could to make the Russians “regret everything they did and be accountable for every murder and every blow to our beautiful state.” People sit inside an evacuation train waiting to leave for Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. (Efrem Lukatsky / The Associated Press)
“A bigger war”
Speaking at a defense conference in Singapore on Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe said Beijing continued to support Russia-Ukraine peace talks and hoped the United States and its NATO allies would hold talks with Russia. to create the conditions for a timely ceasefire. “ “China will continue to play a constructive role and contribute our part to easing tensions and implementing a political solution to the crisis,” Wei said. He suggested that nations supplying weapons to Ukraine be hampered by “throwing oil on the fire” and stressed that China had not provided any military equipment or equipment to Russia during the war. “Developing Sino-Russian relations is a partnership, not an alliance,” Wei said. View of the damage at the Nika Tera grain terminal in Mykolaiv on Sunday as Russia’s attacks on Ukraine continue. (Edgar Su / Reuters) The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., said in a recent assessment that Ukraine’s intelligence suggested that the Russian military was planning to “fight a bigger war.” The institute said the deputy head of Ukraine’s national security service said Moscow had extended its war schedule until October, with adjustments to be made depending on any successes in Donbas. The information “probably indicates that the Kremlin has at least acknowledged that it can not achieve its goals in Ukraine quickly and is further adapting its military goals in an effort to correct the initial shortcomings in the invasion of Ukraine,” the think tank said.
Parallel to Mariupol
The ambassador of the Luhansk People’s Republic to Russia, Rodion Miroshnik, said on Saturday that 300 to 400 Ukrainian soldiers were trapped inside the Severodonetsk chemical plant, along with several hundred civilians. The Russians have been in contact with Ukrainian troops to arrange for the evacuation of civilians, but troops will only be allowed to leave if they lay down their arms and surrender, Miroshnik said. CLOCKS What happened in week 16 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
What happened in week 16 of the Russian attack on Ukraine
With millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports due to Russian blockades, the United Nations has accused the Kremlin of creating a global food crisis. Russia has also hit Kyiv with airstrikes for the first time in months as fighting continues to escalate in the Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Following is a summary of the war in Ukraine from 4 to 10 June. Similar conditions prevailed for weeks at a steel plant in Mariupol in southern Ukraine before a civilian evacuation was arranged and the defending troops were ordered to leave by Ukrainian military commanders. The fighters who came out of the Mariupol factory were captured by the Russians.
