Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Saint Petersburg, Russia June 25, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via REUTERS
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
MOSCOW, June 25 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday told his counterpart from Belarus that Moscow would supply Minsk with missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the Russian foreign ministry said.
At a meeting with Putin in St Petersburg, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko expressed concern about the “aggressive”, “confrontational” and “repulsive” policies of its neighbours Lithuania and Poland.
He asked Putin to help Belarus mount a “symmetrical response” to what he said were nuclear-armed flights by the U.S.-led NATO alliance near Belarus’ borders.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Putin said he saw no need at present for a symmetrical response, but that Belarus’ Russian-built Su-25 jets could, if necessary, be upgraded in Russian factories.
“We will transfer Iskander-M tactical missile systems to Belarus, which can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions,” a foreign ministry summary of the meeting quoted him as saying.
The Iskander-M, a mobile guided missile system codenamed “SS-26 Stone” by NATO, replaced the Soviet “Scud”. Its two guided missiles have a range of up to 500 km (300 miles) and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
Parts of the meeting between the two men were televised.
“Minsk must be ready for anything, even the use of serious weaponry to defend our fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok,” Lukashenko said, putting Belarus and its close ally Russia under one umbrella.
In particular, he asked for help to make Belarus’ military aircraft nuclear-capable.
Tensions between Russia and the West have soared since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine four months ago, alleging among other things that NATO planned to admit Ukraine and use it as a platform to threaten Russia.
Russia’s move has not only triggered a barrage of Western sanctions but also prompted Sweden and Russia’s northern neighbour Finland to apply to join the Western alliance.
In the past week, Lithuania in particular has infuriated Russia by blocking the transit of goods subject to European sanctions travelling across its territory from Russia, through Belarus, to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Russia has termed it a “blockade”, but Lithuania says it affects only 1% of the normal goods transit on the route, and that passenger traffic is unaffected.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters;
Editing by Sandra Maler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Zelenskiy urges West to speed up heavy weapons deliveries
Battle for Donbas twin cities reaches critical stage
KYIV, June 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine became a candidate to join the European Union on Thursday, a bold geopolitical step triggered by Russia’s invasion that Kyiv and Brussels hailed as an “historic moment”.
Starting on the long path to EU membership will be a huge boost to morale in the embattled country, as Russian assaults on two cities in the eastern Donbas region move toward a “fearsome climax”, according to a Ukrainian government adviser.
“Ukraine’s future is in the EU,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter after the official announcement.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“A historic moment,” European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted, adding: “Our future is together.” read more
The approval of the Kyiv government’s application by EU leaders meeting in Brussels will anger Russia as it struggles to impose its will on Ukraine. Moldova also became an official candidate on Thursday, signalling the bloc’s intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.
Friday will mark four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in what he calls a “special military operation” sparked in part by Western encroachment into what Russia considers its sphere of influence.
The conflict, which the West sees as an unjustified war of aggression by Russia, has killed thousands, displaced millions, and destroyed cities, while the curtailment of food and energy exports has affected countries across the world.
Russia has focused its campaign on southern and eastern Ukraine after its advance on the capital in the early stages of the conflict was thwarted by Ukrainian resistance.
The war of attrition in the Donbas – Ukraine’s industrial heartland – is most critical in the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, which sit on opposite banks of the Siverskyi Donets River in Luhansk province.
The battle there is “entering a sort of fearsome climax”, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy.
HOT SUMMER
Russian forces were trying to encircle Ukrainian troops defending Lysychansk, senior Ukrainian defence official Oleksiy Gromov said in a briefing on Thursday.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said separately that all Lysychansk was within reach of Russian fire and that Ukrainian troops there might retreat to new positions to avoid being trapped.
A general view of the main meeting room where European Union leaders gather for a summit, in Brussels, Belgium June 23, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna Geron
Read More
Russian-backed separatist forces said there was fierce fighting underway around Ukrainian positions in Hirske, which lies on the western side of the main north-south road to Lysychansk, and Zolote, another settlement to the south.
Ukrainian forces were defending Sievierodonetsk and nearby Zolote and Vovchoyrovka, Gaidai said, but Russian troops had captured Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka to the south. Hundreds of civilians are trapped in a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk.
On the southern front, Russian forces struck Ukrainian army fuel tanks and military equipment near Mykolaiv with high-precision weapons, Russia’s defence ministry said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
A river port and ship-building centre just off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has been a bastion against Russian efforts to push West towards Ukraine’s main port city of Odesa.
Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s allies to speed up shipments of heavy weapons to match Russia on the battlefield. “We must free our land and achieve victory, but more quickly, a lot more quickly,” he said in a video address early on Thursday.
Later, Ukrainian defence minister said HIMARS multiple rocket systems had arrived from the United States. With a range of 70 km (44 miles), the systems can challenge the Russian artillery batteries that have bludgeoned Ukrainian cities from afar.
The United States will provide an additional $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including more long-range rocket systems, U.S. officials said on Thursday. read more
SHIELD FOR THE EU
Russia has long opposed closer links between Ukraine, a fellow former Soviet republic, and Western groupings like the European Union and the NATO military alliance.
Diplomats say it will take Ukraine a decade or more to meet the criteria for joining the EU.
But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was convinced that Ukraine and Moldova will move as swiftly as possible to implement necessary reforms.
Their move to join the EU runs alongside applications by Sweden and Finland to enter NATO in the wake of the Russian invasion – indications that the Kremlin’s military actions have backfired on its geopolitical aims.
In Kyiv, where mass protests eight years ago ousted the then-president after he broke a promise to develop closer ties with the EU, 22-year-old serviceman Volodymyr Yanishan welcomed Ukraine’s candidate status.
“It means that people almost reached what we have been striving for since 2014, in a bloody fight which cost us much effort… I think the majority will be glad and it means changes for better.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Angus MacSwan, Alexandra Hudson and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Catherine Evans and Rosalba O’Brien
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Battle for Donbas twin cities reaches critical stage
KYIV, June 23 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow’s massive air and artillery attacks were aimed at destroying the entire Donbas region and urged Ukraine’s allies to accelerate the shipment of heavy weapons to match Russia on the battlefield.
The fight for the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in Ukraine’s Luhansk region is “entering a sort of fearsome climax”, said Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Zelenskiy. Russia is seeking to capture both Luhansk and Donetsk, which make up the Donbas region – the nation’s industrial heartland.
On the diplomatic front, European leaders on Thursday will formally set Ukraine on the long road to EU membership at a summit in Brussels. Though mainly symbolic, the move will help lift morale after four-months of bloody conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed cities.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“We must free our land and achieve victory, but more quickly, a lot more quickly,” Zelenskiy said in a video address released early Thursday, reiterating Ukrainian demands for larger and faster weapons.
“There were massive air and artillery strikes in Donbas. The occupier’s goal here is unchanged, they want to destroy the entire Donbas step-by-step,” he said.
“This is why we again and again emphasize the acceleration of arm deliveries to Ukraine. What is quickly needed is parity on the battlefield in order to halt this diabolical armada and push it beyond Ukraine’s borders.”
BATTLE FOR TWIN CITIES
The fierce war of attrition in the Donbas is at its most critical in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Ukrainian forces were defending Sievierodonetsk and the nearby settlements of Zolote and Vovchoyrovka, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Thursday, but added Russia had captured Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka to the south.
Hundreds of civilians are trapped in a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, with Ukraine and Russia disputing who controls the bombed-out city.
Moscow says Ukrainian forces in the city are surrounded and trapped. But Gaidai told Ukrainian Television on Wednesday that “Russian forces do not have full control.”
On Lysychansk, Gaidai said it was “very dangerous in the city” as all of it was within reach of Russian fire.
“In order to avoid encirclement, our command could order that the troops retreat to new positions. There may be a regrouping after last night,” he added.
Tass news agency cited Russian-backed separatists saying Lysychansk was now surrounded and cut off from supplies after a road connecting the city to the town Sieviersk was taken.
Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the report.
According to Britain’s defence ministry, Russian forces have highly likely advanced more than 5 km (3.11 miles) towards the southern approaches of Lysychansk since June 19.
“Some Ukrainian units have withdrawn, probably to avoid being encircled,” it said on Twitter.
“Russian forces are putting the Lysychansk-Sievierodonetsk pocket under increasing pressure with this creeping advance … however, its efforts to achieve a deeper encirclement to take western Donetsk Oblast remain stalled,” the ministry added.
Arestovych said Russian forces in both cities were conscripts of varying levels of training after Ukraine inflicted heavy losses on Russian forces. Reuters could not verify his comments on Russian losses.
“It’s like two boxers grappling with each other in the 18th round of a bout and barely able to move things forward. This operation started on 14th April and has been going on for nearly 80 days,” he said in an online video post.
EU MEMBERSHIP
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what the Kremlin calls a “special operation” to ensure Russian security and denazify Ukraine. Ukraine and the West call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe.
Russia has long opposed closer links between Ukraine, a former Soviet state, and Western clubs like the European Union (EU) and the NATO military alliance.
Zelenskiy said he had spoken to 11 EU leaders on Wednesday about Ukraine’s candidacy and will make more calls on Thursday.
Diplomats say it will take Ukraine a decade or more to meet the criteria for joining the EU. But EU leaders say the bloc must make a gesture that recognises Ukraine’s sacrifice.
The war in Ukraine has had a massive impact on the global economy and European security, driving up gas, oil and food prices, pushing the EU to reduce its heavy reliance on Russian energy and prompting Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership.
The EU will temporarily shift back to coal to cope with dwindling Russian gas flows without derailing longer-term climate goals, an EU official said on Wednesday.
Leaders from the Group of Seven and NATO will seek to increase pressure on Russia at meetings next week, U.S. administration officials said. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ukraine says Russians hitting Kharkiv as they did Mariupol
Fire breaks out at oil refinery inside Russia
Putin to mark day in 1941 when Hitler invaded Soviet Union
KYIV/KHARKIV, June 22 (Reuters) – Russian forces pounded Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv and surrounding countryside with rockets, killing at least 15 people, in what Kyiv called a bid to force it to pull resources from the main battlefield to protect civilians from attack.
Inside Russia, a fire tore through an oil refinery just 8 km (5 miles) from the Ukrainian border, after what the refinery described as a cross border attack by two drones.
In the main battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk, where Russia has claimed to have Ukrainian forces surrounded since last week, pictures filmed by a freelance journalist made clear the battle was not over, with Ukrainian troops able to resupply their garrison by crossing a river in inflatable rafts.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
The Russian strikes on Kharkiv, throughout Tuesday and continuing on Wednesday morning, were the worst for weeks in the area where normal life had been returning since Ukraine pushed Russian forces back in a major counter-offensive last month.
“It was shelling by Russian troops. It was probably multiple rocket launchers. And it’s the missile impact, it’s all the missile impact,” Kharkiv prosecutor Mikhailo Martosh told Reuters amid the ruins of cottages struck on Tuesday in a rural area on the city’s outskirts.
Medical workers carried the body of an elderly woman out of the rubble of a burnt-out garage and into a nearby van.
“She was 85 years old. A child of the war (World War Two). She survived one war, but didn’t make it through this one,” said her grandson Mykyta. “There is nowhere to flee to. Especially grandmother herself, she didn’t want to go anywhere from here.”
Ukrainian authorities said there were reports of more casualties overnight and on Wednesday morning after 15 people were killed and 16 wounded on Tuesday in the Kharkiv region.
“Russian forces are now hitting the city of Kharkiv in the same way that they previously were hitting Mariupol – with the aim of terrorising the population,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video address.
“And if they keep doing that we will have to react — and that is one way to make us move our artillery,” he said. “The idea is to create one big problem to distract us and force us to divert troops. I think there will be an escalation.”
The main battlefield is now to the south of Kharkiv in the Donbas region, which Moscow has been trying to seize on behalf of its separatist proxies, with the worst fighting concentrated in the devastated city of Sievierodonetsk.
Ukrainian forces have largely been withstanding the Russian assault so far despite taking punishing losses, with Moscow making only slow progress using overwhelming artillery in some of the heaviest ground fighting in Europe since World War Two.
Russia says Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk are trapped. After the last bridge over the Siverskyi Donets river was destroyed last week, Moscow ordered the Ukrainians to surrender or die.
But Oleksandr Ratushniak, a freelance photographer who reached Sievierodonetsk with Ukrainian forces in recent days, filmed soldiers crossing the river in an inflatable raft, evidence that the garrison is not yet cut off.
A worker from the war crimes prosecutor’s office takes in the damage from overnight shelling that landed on a building of Kharkiv’s Housing and Communal College as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues in Kharkiv, Ukraine, June 21, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Read More
Inside the ruins of the frontline industrial zone, the Ukrainian troops fired from a tank’s main gun. They smoked cigarettes as they hid from Russian artillery exploding outside. A dachshund scampered through the rubble.
“For us, this like digging up potatoes,” said one, describing the bombardment as a typical day of work.
DRONE STRIKE
There was no immediate Ukrainian comment about the apparent drone strike which suspended production at Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, on the Russian side of the frontier with Donbas territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Video footage posted on social media appeared to show a drone flying towards the refinery, before a large ball of flame and black smoke billowed up into the summer sky. The local emergency service, cited by Interfax, said no one was hurt and the blaze was put out. read more
Ukraine generally does not comment on reports of attacks on Russian infrastructure near the border. In the past it has called such incidents “karma” for Russian attacks on Ukraine.
In a separate incident, Russian authorities said four people were killed after a shell exploded at an ammunition depot deep inside Russia.
Wednesday is marked in both Russia and Ukraine as the “Day of Remembrance and Sorrow”, anniversary of the day when Hitler’s Germany attacked the Soviet Union. An estimated 27 million Soviet citizens died in World War Two.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at a memorial flame for the dead. World War Two plays a prominent role in Russian propaganda over the Ukraine invasion, which Putin calls a “special operation” to root out “Nazis”.
Kyiv and the West view that as a baseless justification for a war to restore Moscow’s rule over Ukraine and wipe out its identity as a separate nation.
“Bombed at 4:30 am. Banned the word ‘war’. Blamed other countries for aggression. Psychiatrists of the future will examine: how after building the WWII cult for years, Russia began to recreate bloody pages of the history and Nazis’ each step,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted.
“The last chapter’s name is known – tribunal.”
Moscow repeated threats on Wednesday to take unspecified retaliation for a decision by Lithuania to block rail shipments of some goods to Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic Sea. Lithuania says it was required to block the shipments under EU sanctions that took effect on Saturday.
“We are convinced that the illegal sanctions adopted by the European Union are absolutely unacceptable in this situation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a call with reporters, adding that countermeasures were being prepared.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Vitalii Hnidyi in Kharkiv, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and Reuters bureaux Writing by Peter Graff
Editing by Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Russia investigating attacks on its oil installations
This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
MOSCOW, June 22 (Reuters) – Two drones flying from the direction of Ukraine hit a major Russian oil refinery near the border on Wednesday, the plant said, sending a ball of flame and black smoke billowing into the sky and prompting the plant to suspend production.
Russian regions bordering Ukraine have reported numerous attacks and shelling after Moscow sent its troops into its former Soviet neighbour on Feb. 24 for what it calls a “special military operation”.
The Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov region said the first drone struck at 8.40 a.m. (0540 GMT) hitting acrude distillation unit, triggering a blast and ball of fire.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
The second strike at 0623 GMT was aimed at crude oil reservoirs at the refinery, the largest supplier of oil products in southern Russia, but caused no fire, the plant said. No one was injured.
“As a result of terrorist actions from the Western border of the Rostov region, two unmanned aerial vehicles struck at the technological facilities of Novoshakhtinsk,” the plant said.
“Staff have been evacuated and technological equipment has been stopped to assess the damage.”
Rostov’s regional governor, Vasily Golubev, said the oil refinery suspended operations. He said fragments of two drones had been found at the refinery.
Social media footage showed a drone flying towards the refinery, located just 8 km (5 miles) from the border with Ukraine, before a large ball of flame rose up, prompting exclamations from those near the camera.
The refinery has an annual capacity of up to 7.5 million tonnes, and started operations in 2009.
Russia’s energy ministry said the fire had not affected gasoline and diesel supplies to consumers in southern Russia.
Russia is also investigating the cause of a large fire that erupted at an oil storage facility in the city of Bryansk, 154 km (96 miles) northeast of the border with Ukraine, in late April.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters; editing by Jason Neely, Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Lithuania: ironic to hear Russia moaning about law
LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) – A top ally of President Vladimir Putin told Lithuania on Tuesday that Moscow would respond to its ban on the transit of goods sanctioned by the EU to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad in such a way that citizens of the Baltic state would feel the pain.
With relations between Moscow and the West at a half-century low over Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania banned the transit of goods sanctioned by the European Union across its territory to and from the exclave, citing EU sanction rules.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB spy who is now the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Lithuania’s “hostile” actions showed that Russia could not trust the West, which he said had broken written agreements over Kaliningrad.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Patrushev was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
“Appropriate measures are being worked out in an interdepartmental format and will be taken in the near future,” he was quoted as saying. “Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.”
Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, said it was simply applying agreed EU sanctions on Russia, adding it was “ironic” to hear Moscow’s complaints given its war in Ukraine.
‘NO BLOCKADE’
“It’s ironic to hear rhetoric about alleged violations of international treaties from a country which has violated possibly every single international treaty,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte told reporters.
A view shows freight cars, following Lithuania’s ban of the transit of goods under EU sanctions through the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, in Kaliningrad, Russia June 21, 2022. REUTERS/Vitaly Nevar
Read More
“There is no Kaliningrad blockade,” Simonyte said. “Lithuania is implementing EU sanctions.”
Kaliningrad, formerly the port of Koenigsberg, capital of East Prussia, was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War Two. It is sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
After Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies imposed some of the most stringent sanctions in modern history, a step the Kremlin cast as akin to a declaration of economic war.
Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the EU’s ambassador to Moscow, Markus Ederer, to formally complain. read more
“We demanded the immediate restoration of normal Kaliningrad transit. Otherwise retaliatory measures will follow,” it said.
Ederer urged Russia to refrain from “escalatory steps and rhetoric” over the situation, an EU spokesperson said.
“He conveyed our position on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and explained that Lithuania is implementing EU sanctions and there is no blockade, and asked them to refrain from escalatory steps and rhetoric,” the spokesperson, Peter Stano, said in Brussels.
Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Kyiv and its Western backers say this is a false pretext to wage an unprovoked war of aggression.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Nick Macfie and Gareth Jones
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
VILNIUS, June 18 (Reuters) – Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions will take effect from Saturday.
News of the ban came on Friday, through a video posted by the region’s governor Anton Alikhanov. read more
The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Its immediate start was confirmed by the cargo arm of Lithuania’s state railways service in a letter to clients following “clarification” from the European Commission on the mechanism for applying the sanctions.
A spokesman for the service confirmed the contents of the letter but declined to comment further. The foreign ministry did not reply to a request from Reuters for comment.
Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas told public broadcaster his institution was waiting for “clarification from the European Commission on applying European sanctions to Kaliningrad cargo transit”.
Sandwiched between EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania,
Kaliningrad receives supplies from Russia via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania.
Home to the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic sea fleet, the enclave was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War Two.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; additional reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels; editing by John Stonestreet and Christina Fincher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Shelling causes fire after oil leak at chemical plant, governor says
Ukraine urges West to deliver more heavy arms swiftly
War blocks vital Ukraine grain exports from Black Sea
KYIV, June 11 (Reuters) – Ukraine remains in control of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering amid bitter fighting, the region’s governor said on Saturday, after a Russia-backed separatist claimed 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters were also trapped there.
Earlier, the governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said Russian shelling of the plant in Luhansk province had ignited a big fire after a leak of tonnes of oil. read more
In neighboring Donetsk province, Russian media reported that a huge cloud of smoke could be seen after an explosion in the city of Avdiivka, which houses another chemical plant. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Weeks of fighting for Sievierodonetsk, a small city in Luhansk that has become the focus of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine, has pulverized sections of the town and has been some of the bloodiest since Moscow began its invasion on Feb. 24.
“The information about the blockade of the Azot plant is a lie,” Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app. “Our forces are holding an industrial zone of Sievierodonetsk and are destroying the Russian army in the town.” read more
Ukraine has said some 800 people were hiding in several bomb shelters underneath the Azot plant, including about 200 employees and 600 residents of Sievierodonetsk.
Rodion Miroshnik, a Russian-backed representative of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said late on Saturday that some civilians had started to leave and that Ukrainian forces may be holding several hundred civilians “hostage”.
Earlier, he said 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters were blockaded on the grounds of the plant along with civilians.
Gaidai said earlier that Russian forces controlled most of the city, although Ukraine controlled the Azot plant.
The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said on Facebook that Ukrainian forces pushed back a Russian attack on three small towns to the northwest of Sloviansk in Donetsk province, while fighting was continuing in a fourth settlement in the area, as well as to the east of the city.
Russian strikes knocked out power in Donetsk’s two largest Ukrainian-controlled cities on Saturday, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
In a short video address late on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that while “fierce street fights continue in Sievierodonetsk,” the Ukrainian military was gradually liberating territory further west in the Kherson region and had had some successes in Zaporizhzhia too.
“We are definitely going to prevail in this war that Russia has started,” he told a conference in Singapore via video link earlier in the day. “It is on the battlefields in Ukraine that the future rules of this world are being decided.” read more
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Ukraine has appealed for swifter deliveries of heavy weapons from the West to turn the tide of the war, saying Russian forces have at least 10 times more artillery pieces.
Ukrainian forces have proven more resilient than expected, but, in a report on Friday, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said that as they use the last of their stocks of Soviet-era weapons and munitions, they will require consistent Western support to transition to new Western supplies and systems.
A local man with kids rides a bicycle along an empty street, as smoke rises after shelling in the background, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Lysychansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine June 10, 2022. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak
Read More
The institute said effective artillery would “be increasingly decisive in the largely static fighting in eastern Ukraine.”
EUROPEAN TALKS
On Saturday, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing French and Ukrainian government sources, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to Kyiv with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi before the Group of Seven summit at the end of June. read more
A German government spokesperson told Reuters they were not able to confirm the report and the Elysee Palace in Paris declined to confirm it. The Italian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
None of the three leaders has been to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion. Macron has sought to maintain a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a stance some eastern European and Baltic countries see as undermining efforts to push him into negotiations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Zelenskiy during a visit to Kyiv on Saturday that the EU executive’s opinion on Ukraine’s request to join the European Union would be ready by the end of next week. read more
All 27 EU governments would have to agree to grant Ukraine candidate status, after which there would be extensive talks on reforms required before Kyiv could be considered for membership.
Referring to those skeptical about Ukraine’s EU bid, Zelenskiy said keeping Ukraine outside of the bloc would work against Europe. He called his talks with von der Leyen “very fruitful” and added: “there will be many more important and, I hope, fruitful talks with European leaders next week.”
GRAIN SHORTAGES
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world’s biggest grain exporters, has reverberated well beyond Ukraine.
The United Nations said on Friday up to 19 million more people in the world could face chronic hunger in the next year because of reduced wheat and other food exports.
Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday up to 300,000 tonnes of grain may have been stored in warehouses in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv that Kyiv says were destroyed by Russian shelling last weekend. read more
Turkey has sought a deal so Ukraine can resume shipments from its Black Sea ports, which accounted for 98% of its cereal and oilseed exports before the war. But Moscow says Kyiv must clear the ports of mines and Ukraine says it needs security guarantees so it is not left exposed. read more
The battle for Sievierodonetsk recalls weeks of bombardment of the southern port city of Mariupol, which was reduced to ruins before Russian forces took control of it last month.
Moscow turned to expanding control in the eastern Donbas region, where pro-Russian separatists had already held a swathe of territory since 2014, after being forced to scale back its initial more sweeping campaign goals.
It calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression to capture territory.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Max Hunder
Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux
Writing by Edmund Blair, Frances Kerry and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
VILNIUS, May 28 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Lithuanians are clubbing together to buy an advanced military drone for Ukraine in its war against Russia, in a show of solidarity with a fellow country formerly under Moscow’s rule.
Some 4.4 million euros ($4.1 million) have been raised in just three days – out of the 5 million euros needed – largely in small amounts, according to Laisves TV, a Lithuanian internet broadcaster that launched the drive.
“Before this war started, none of us thought that we would be buying guns. But it’s a normal thing now. Something must be done for the world to get better,” said Agne Belickaite, 32, who sent 100 euros as soon as the fundraising launched on Wednesday.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“I’ve been donating to buy guns for Ukraine for a while now. And will do so until the victory,” she told Reuters, adding she was motivated in part by fears Russia could attack Lithuania.
The drone has proven effective in recent years against Russian forces and their allies in conflicts in Syria and Libya, and its purchase is being orchestrated by Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence, which told Reuters it planned to sign a letter of intent to buy the craft from Turkey next week.
Agne Belickaite poses next to graffiti that reads, “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!”, after donating 100 euro to purchase a military drone for Ukraine, in Vilnius, Lithuania, May 27, 2022. Picture taken May 27, 2022. REUTERS/Andrius Sytas
Read More
Ukraine has bought more than 20 Bayraktar TB2 armed drones from Turkish company Baykar in recent years and ordered a further 16 on Jan. 27. That batch was delivered in early March.
“This is the first case in history when ordinary people raise money to buy something like a Bayraktar. It is unprecedented, it is unbelievable,” Beshta Petro, Ukraine’s ambassador to Lithuania, told Laisves TV.
Most of the heavy weapons that NATO countries have sent to Ukraine so far are Soviet-built arms still in the inventories of eastern European NATO member states, but some have recently started to supply Western howitzers.
“While governments of the world’s largest countries are endlessly deliberating … Lithuanian society simply comes together and, you know, is about to fundraise 5 million euros and buy the drone – which is an impressive message to the world,” said Belickaite.
($1 = 0.9328 euros)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius
Editing by Mark Potter and Christina Fincher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
May 20 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the number of cyber attacks on Russia by foreign “state structures” had increased several times over and that Russia must bolster its cyber defences by reducing the use of foreign software and hardware.
The websites of many state-owned companies and news websites have suffered sporadic hacking attempts since Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, often to show information that is at odds with Moscow’s official line on the conflict.
“Targeted attempts are being made to disable the internet resources of Russia’s critical information infrastructure,” Putin said, adding that media and financial institutions had been targeted.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“Serious attacks have been launched against the official sites of government agencies. Attempts to illegally penetrate the corporate networks of leading Russian companies are much more frequent as well,” he said.
In a meeting with the Security Council, Putin said that Russia would need to improve information security in key sectors and switch to using domestic technology and equipment.
“Restrictions on foreign IT, software and products have become one of the tools of sanctions pressure on Russia,” Putin said. “A number of Western suppliers have unilaterally stopped technical support of their equipment in Russia.”
He said cases of programmes getting blocked after being updated were becoming more frequent.
DATA LEAKS
State communications regulator Roskomnadzor on Wednesday said it had blocked a website that was hosting the personal data of a number of companies’ clients. It did not name the companies.
Russia’s second-biggest bank VTB (VTBR.MM) was quoted by media as saying some customers’ phone numbers had been leaked but there was no risk to their funds.
E-commerce player Wildberries and online marketplace Avito denied reports in Russian media that their data had been leaked.
A data leak in early March exposed the personal details of more than 58,000 people on tech giant Yandex’s (YNDX.O) food delivery app, Yandex.Eda. read more
Yandex.Eda competitor Delivery Club on Friday apologised to users after it suffered a data leak on orders placed by users.
“The data includes information about orders and does not affect bank details. We are doing our best to prevent the dissemination of the data,” TASS news agency quoted the company as saying.
Hacking attacks this month kept video-hosting site RuTube offline for three days and altered satellite television menus in Moscow on Victory Day, when Russia celebrated the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. read more
Moscow has long sought to improve its domestic internet infrastructure, even disconnecting itself from the global internet during tests last summer.
However, the unprecedented Western barrage of sanctions imposed in response to Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine has increased the pressure to make Russia’s IT systems more resilient.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.