Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now
June 9 (Reuters) - Ukrainian troops claimed on Thursday to have pushed forward in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but said their only hope of turning the tide was more artillery to offset Russia's massive firepower. read more
* The battle for Sievierodonetsk is being waged house to house and at times under heavy Russian artillery barrages that endangered troops on both sides, the commander of Ukraine's Svoboda (Freedom) National Guard battalion said.
* Ukrainian forces still hold the industrial zone and adjacent areas in Sievierodonetsk and the situation is "difficult but manageable", but evacuating 10,000 remaining civilians is now impossible, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said.
* The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said its forces had won back some territory from Russian forces in a counter-offensive in the Kherson area of southern Ukraine. Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground.
* Two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine could face the death penalty after pleading guilty in a court of one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russia's RIA news agency reported. read more
* Western-supplied artillery systems are already making a difference on the ground for Ukraine and it is "just a question of time" before its forces win back significant ground in the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region said. read more
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* The Kremlin said no agreement had been reached to sell grain from Ukraine to Turkey - which Ukraine says Russia has stolen from it - but that work on a deal was continuing. Moscow denies stealing the grain but the United States says there are credible reports that Russia is "pilfering" it. read more
* Millions of people may starve because of Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The world, he said, faces a "terrible food crisis" with Ukraine unable to export large amounts of wheat, corn and oil. Russia has blamed the crisis on Ukrainian mines laid at sea and international sanctions against Moscow. read more
"Yesterday was successful for us - we launched a counteroffensive and in some areas we managed to push them back one or two blocks. In others they pushed us back, but just by a building or two," he said in a televised interview.
"Yesterday the occupiers suffered serious losses - if every day were like yesterday, this would all be over soon."
But he said his forces were suffering from a "catastrophic" lack of counter-battery artillery to fire back at Russia's guns, and getting such weapons would transform the battlefield.
"Even without these systems, we are holding on fine. There is an order to hold our positions and we are holding them. It is unbelievable what the surgeons are doing without the proper equipment to save soldiers' lives."
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said on Thursday around 10,000 civilians were still trapped inside the city - around a tenth of its pre-war population.
To the west of Sievierodonetsk, Russia is pushing from the north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region comprising Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk province, blasting Ukrainian-controlled towns in their path with artillery.
In Soledar, a salt-mining town near Bakhmut close to the front line, buildings had been blasted into craters.
Remaining residents, mostly elderly, were sheltering in a crowded cellar. A woman peeled potatoes and swatted away flies. Men lay asleep on cots. Kateryna, 85, curled up under a blanket, her hair wrapped in a scarf.
"It will be as God shall give," she said, her voice drowned out by the sound of barking dogs.
Antonina, 65, had ventured out to see her garden. "We are staying. We live here. We were born here." She sobbed: "When is it all going to end?"
HUMAN IMPACT
* Tourists once flocked to the Ukrainian resort of Odesa to lie on its Black Sea beaches, but the white sands are now covered in mines because of the war with Russia and police officers patrol the boardwalks. read more
POLITICS
* Russia's proxies in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia province announced plans to stage a referendum on joining Russia at an unspecified date later this year. read more
QUOTES
* "This is a very brutal battle, very tough, perhaps one of the most difficult throughout this war. Sievierodonetsk remains the epicentre of the encounter in Donbas...Largely, that is where the fate of our Donbas is being decided now." -Zelenskiy
KHERSON COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
In the south, Moscow is trying to impose its rule on a tract of occupied territory spanning Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, where Russian-installed proxy authorities say they are planning referendums to join Russia.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said on Thursday its forces had won back some territory in a counter-offensive in Kherson.
It gave no details about the location of the advance, but said the Russian forces had "suffered losses in manpower and equipment", and planted mines and erected barricades as they were pushed back.
Ukraine reported a counter-offensive in Kherson last week, claiming to have seized a bridgehead on the south bank of the Inhulets river forming a boundary of the province, confirmed this week by Britain's ministry of defence. The situation there could not be independently confirmed.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled since Moscow launched its "special military operation" to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour on Feb. 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain and food oil exporters, and international attention has focused in recent weeks on the threat of international famine seen as caused by Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports.
"Millions of people may starve if the Russian blockade of the Black Sea continues," Zelenskiy said on Thursday in televised remarks.
Moscow blames the food crisis on Western sanctions restricting its own grain exports. It says it is willing to let Ukrainian ports open for exports if Ukraine removes mines and meets other conditions. Kyiv calls such offers empty promises.
Turkey, a NATO power with good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, has tried to mediate, hosting Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks on Tuesday.
Russia has also been trying to sell grain from areas of Ukraine it seized, activity Kyiv and the West call looting. Asked if any deal had been reached to sell grain from southern Ukraine to Turkey or a Middle Eastern country, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "So far no agreements have been reached, work is continuing."
The grain crisis took front stage at a meeting of the OECD group of developed countries in Paris.
"We need to unblock the millions of tonnes of cereals that are stuck there because of the conflict," Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in a speech. "We have to offer President Zelenskiy the assurances he needs that the ports will not be attacked."
No comments:
Post a Comment