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Ukraine battles to push back Russian advance in northern Donetsk

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  • Ukraine says it is holding out but under pressure
  • Says Russian shells hitting key towns
  • Ukraine denies losing 2 new U.S. rocket systems in fighting

KYIV/KRAMATORSK, Ukraine, July 6 (Reuters) – Ukraine has so far staved off any major Russian advance into the north of its Donetsk region, but pressure is intensifying with heavy shelling on the city of Sloviansk and nearby populated areas, the Ukrainian military said on Wednesday.

Russia and separatist proxies were already in control of the southern part of Donetsk province when they effectively completed the seizure of the neighbouring Luhansk region on Sunday with the capture of the city of Lysychansk, much of which now lies in ruins.

Moscow says ejecting the Ukrainian military out of both regions is central to what it calls its “special military operation” to ensure its own security, a more than four-month-long offensive that the West calls an unprovoked war.

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Donetsk and Luhansk provinces comprise the Donbas, the eastern, heavily industrial region of Ukraine that has become Europe’s biggest battlefield for generations and over which Russia wants to wrest control for separatists it supports.

In its evening note on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military suggested that Russian forces were intensifying pressure on Ukrainian defenders along the northern flanks of Donetsk province.

It said Russian forces were bombarding several Ukrainian towns with heavy weaponry to enable ground forces to advance southward into the region and close in on Sloviansk.

“The enemy is trying to improve its tactical position…(They) advanced … before being repulsed by our soldiers and retreating with losses,” the Ukrainian military update said.

Other Russian forces, it said, aimed to seize two towns en route to the city of Kramatorsk, south of Sloviansk, and were also trying to take control of the main highway linking Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

“We are holding back the enemy on the (Luhansk/Donetsk) border,” Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian TV. Later, he said Luhansk was still not entirely occupied by Russian forces and that Russia had sustained “colossal losses.”

“They will continue to try to advance on Sloviansk and Bakhmut. There is no doubt about that,” he said.

Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Lyakh told a video briefing the city had been shelled for the last two weeks.

“The situation is tense,” he said, adding that 17 residents had been killed there since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia’s defence ministry says it does not target civilians and on Wednesday said it was using high-precision weapons to take out military threats.

It said it had destroyed two advanced U.S.-made HIMARS rocket systems and their ammunition depots in Donetsk province. Ukraine denied this and said it was using HIMARS to inflict “devastating blows” on Russian forces. read more

In his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian fighters were making “tangible strikes” on Russian logistical targets like depots, affecting their offensive potential.

Smoke rises after shelling during Ukraine-Russia conflict in Donetsk, Ukraine July 6, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

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“At last, Western artillery has started to work powerfully, the weapons we are getting from our partners. And their accuracy is exactly what is needed,” he said.

Ukraine has repeatedly pleaded with the West to send more weapons to repel the invasion that has killed thousands, displaced millions, and flattened cities.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had spoken Wednesday with his German and U.S. counterparts, where he said the importance of continuing military aid was discussed.

‘NO SAFE AREAS’

In the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk, which Russian forces are expected to try to capture in coming weeks, Ukrainian soldiers and a handful of civilians ran errands in green-painted cars and vans on Wednesday. Much of the population has left.

“It’s almost deserted. It’s spooky,” said Oleksandr, a 64-year-old retired metal worker.

He was unlikely to follow official advice to evacuate, he said, despite an increase in missile strikes. “I’m not looking for death but if I encounter it it’s better to be at home,” he said.

The war has also ground on outside Donbas. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, was being subjected to “constant” longer-range Russian shelling, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Ukrainian TV.

“Russia is trying to demoralise Kharkiv but it won’t get anywhere,” he said. Ukrainian defenders pushed Russian armoured forces well back from Kharkiv early in the war, and Terekhov said around 1 million residents remained there.

South of Kharkiv, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk said that region had been battered by missiles and shelling, while on the southern coast the port of Mykolaiv was also being heavily shelled, Oleksandr Senkevych, its mayor, told a briefing. The city has already shed about half of its pre-war population of half a million.

“There are no safe areas in Mykolaiv,” he said. “I am telling the people… that they need to leave.”

Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield reports.

Russia says it was forced to try to demilitarise Ukraine after the West ignored its pleas to guarantee that its fellow former Soviet republic and neighbour would not be admitted to NATO. Moscow says it also had to root out what it said were dangerous nationalists and protect Russian speakers.

Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia’s stated aims are a pretext for an unprovoked, imperial-style land grab.

In a sign that Moscow is not preparing to wind down its operation anytime soon, Russia’s parliament on Wednesday rushed through bills requiring businesses to supply goods to the armed forces and obliging employees at some firms to work overtime. read more

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry, Andrew Osborn, Mark Heinrich and Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Angus MacSwan, John Stonestreet and Deepa Babington

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

After losing Luhansk, Ukraine forces gather for defence of Donetsk

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  • City of Lysychansk ‘doesn’t exist anymore’ – resident
  • Putin claims biggest victory in near 5-month war
  • Battle for Donetsk next
  • Ukraine hopes for southern counter attack

KYIV, July 5 (Reuters) – Russian forces set their sights on their next objectives in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in neighbouring Luhansk province and the five-month long war entered a new phase.

The capture of the city of Lysychansk on Sunday completed the Russian conquest of Luhansk, one of two regions in Donbas, the industrialised eastern region of Ukraine that has become the site of the biggest battle in Europe in generations.

Both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the fight for Luhansk, particularly during the siege of the twin cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. Both cities have been left in ruins by relentless Russian bombardment.

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“The city doesn’t exist anymore,” said Nina, a young mother who has fled Lysychansk to take refuge in the central city of Dnipro.

“It has practically been wiped off the face of the Earth. There is no humanitarian aid distribution centre, it has been hit. The building which used to house the centre does not exist any more. Just like many of our houses.”

Ukrainian forces on Tuesday took up new defensive lines in Donetsk, where they still control major cities, while Putin told his troops to “absolutely rest and recover their military preparedness”, while units in other areas keep fighting.

Russian forces shelled the towns of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk overnight, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk.

“They are now also the main line of assault for the enemy,” he said of the towns. “There is no safe place without shelling in Donetsk region.”

Since the outset of the conflict, Russia has demanded that Ukraine hand both Luhansk and Donetsk to pro-Moscow separatists, which have declared independent statelets.

“This is the last victory for Russia on Ukrainian territory,” Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video posted online.

“These were medium-sized cities. And this took from 4th April until 4th July — that’s 90 days. So many losses.”

Arestovych said besides the battle for Donetsk, Ukraine was hoping to launch counter offensives in the south of the country.

“Taking the cities in the east meant that 60% of Russian forces are now concentrated in the east and it is difficult for them to be redirected to the south,” he said.

“And there are no more forces that can be brought in from Russia. They paid a big price for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.”

Some military experts reckoned the hard fought victory had brought Russian forces little strategic gain, and the outcome of what has been dubbed the “battle of the Donbas” remained in the balance.

“I think it’s a tactical victory for Russia but at an enormous cost,” said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank in London. He compared the battle to the huge fights for meagre territorial gains that characterized World War One.

“This has taken 60 days to make very slow progress,” he said. “The Russians may declare some kind of victory, but the key war battle is still yet to come.”

Melvin said the decisive battle for Ukraine was likely to take place not in the east, where Russia is mounting its main assault, but in the south, where Ukraine has begun a counter-offensive to recapture territory.

“This is where we see the Ukrainians are making progress around Kherson. There are counter-attacks beginning there and I think it’s most likely that we’ll see the momentum swing to Ukraine as it tries to then mount a large-scale counter-offensive to push the Russians back,” he said.

Early on Tuesday, Russian rockets hit Mykolaiv, a southern city on the main highway between Kherson and Odesa, the mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, said.

‘SUPERHUAMN EFFORT’

Zelenskiy said on Monday that despite Ukraine’s withdrawal from Lysychansk, its troops continued to fight.

“The armed forces of Ukraine respond, push back and destroy the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day,” Zelenskiy said in a nightly video message.

“We need to break them. It is a difficult task. It requires time and superhuman efforts. But we have no alternative.”

The battle for Luhansk is the closest Moscow has come to achieving one of its stated objectives since its forces were defeated trying to capture Kyiv in March. It marks Russia’s biggest victory since it captured the southern port of Mariupol in late May.

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 , calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarise its southern neighbour and protect Russian speakers from what it calls “fascist” nationalists. Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext for flagrant aggression to seize territory.

Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, acknowledged his entire province was now effectively in Russian hands, but told Reuters: “We need to win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk … It hurts a lot, but it’s not losing the war.”

Gaidai said Ukrainian forces that retreated from Lysychansk were now holding the line between Bakhmut and Sloviansk, preparing to fend off a further Russian advance.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts.

Ukraine’s hopes for a sustained counter-attack rest in part on receiving additional weapons from the West, including rockets that can neutralise Russia’s huge firepower advantage by striking deep behind the front line.

“It is a matter of how quickly the supplies come,” said Arestovych.

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Reporting by Reuters bureux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Ukraine war to shift to Donetsk after fall of Luhansk; Russia claims major victory

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  • City was last Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk region
  • Russia says has “liberated” Luhansk region
  • Zelenskiy vows to regain control with long-range weapons
  • Blasts hit Russia’s Belgorod, southern Ukraine base -officials

KYIV, July 4 (Reuters) – Russian forces in Ukraine will focus on trying to seize all of the Donetsk region, having forced Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the last major city under their control in the neighbouring Luhansk region, the governor of Luhansk said on Monday.

After abandoning an assault on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, during the early weeks of the war, Russia concentrated its military operation on the industrial Donbas heartland that comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where Moscow-backed separatist proxies have been fighting Ukraine since 2014.

Russia said it had established full control over the Luhansk region after Ukrainian forces pulled out of the bombed-out city of Lysychansk. read more

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“In terms of the military, it is bad to leave positions, but there is nothing critical (in the loss of Lysychansk). We need to win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk,” Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Reuters in an interview.

“It hurts a lot, but it’s not losing the war.”

He said the withdrawal from Lysychansk had been “centralised”, indicating that it had been planned and orderly, but that Ukrainian forces had risked being surrounded.

“Still, for them (Russian forces) goal number 1 is the Donetsk region. Sloviansk and Bakhmut will come under attack – Bakhmut has already started being shelled very hard,” he said.

Gaidai said that he expected the city of Sloviansk and the town of Bakhmut in particular to come under attack as Russia tries to take full control of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow said the capture of Lysychansk less than a week after taking neighbouring Sievierdonetsk meant it had “liberated” Luhansk, a major Kremlin war goal.

Moscow said it would give the captured territory to the self-proclaimed Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic whose independence it recognised on the eve of the war. read more

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday night vowed to regain the lost territory with the help of long-range Western weapons.

Zelenskiy said Russia was concentrating its firepower on the Donbas front, but Ukraine would hit back with long-range weapons such as the U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers.

“The fact that we protect the lives of our soldiers, our people, plays an equally important role. We will rebuild the walls, we will win back the land, and people must be protected above all else,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

In Sloviansk, west of Lysychansk in Donetsk region, Mayor Vadym Lyakh wrote on Facebook that on Sunday fierce shelling had killed at least six people, including a 10-year-old girl. read more

COSTLY CAMPAIGN

Thousands of civilians have been killed and cities levelled since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of deliberately targeting civilians. Moscow denies this.

Russia says what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine aims to protect Russian speakers from nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say this is a baseless pretext for flagrant aggression that aims to seize territory.

The Ukraine war has sparked a global energy and food crisis and Western-led sanctions against Moscow have triggered the worst economic crisis in Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Germany has warned of gas shortages due to dwindling supplies from Russia. The head of its energy regulator said the 15 billion euros’ ($15.64 billion) of government credit to buy gas for storage may not be enough, according to an interview in the WirtschaftsWoche magazine on Monday. read more

While Russia would try to frame its advance in Luhansk as a significant moment in the war, it came at a high cost to Russia’s military, said Neil Melvin of the London-based think tank RUSI.

“Ukraine’s position was never that they could defend all of this. What they’ve been trying to do is to slow down the Russian assault and cause maximum damage, while they build up for a counteroffensive,” he said.

Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for an acceleration in weapons supplies from the West, saying its forces are heavily outgunned.

STRIKES ON KHARKIV

Zelenskiy’s office said Russian artillery strikes hit residential and farm buildings in the Kharkiv region.

Russia’s defence ministry also said on Sunday it had struck the military infrastructure of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, where a Reuters reporter said Ukrainian forces had been building fortifications after nightly shelling.

Outside a school in Kharkiv, some residents threw debris into a large crater created by an early morning rocket strike while others got help repairing damaged houses.

“The wife was lucky that she woke up early in the morning because the roof fell exactly where she had been sleeping,” one resident, Oleksii Mihulin, told Reuters.

About 70 km (44 miles) from Kharkiv on the Russian side of the border, Russia also reported explosions on Sunday in Belgorod, which it said killed at least three people and destroyed homes. read more

“The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming,” a Belgorod resident told Reuters, adding the blasts occurred around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT).

Moscow has accused Kyiv of numerous attacks on Belgorod and other areas bordering Ukraine. Kyiv has never claimed responsibility for any of these incidents. read more

Ukraine said its air force had flown some 15 sorties “in virtually all directions of hostilities”, destroying equipment and two ammunition depots.

In the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Ukrainian forces hit a military logistics base with more than 30 strikes on Sunday, the city’s exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov said. A Russian-installed official confirmed that strikes had hit the city. read more

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Blasts kill 3 in Russian border city, lawmaker blames Ukraine

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  • Blasts destroy homes damage buildings in Belgorod – governor
  • Russian lawmaker says act of aggression needs severe response
  • Separatists say Lysychansk ‘under control’ but not liberated
  • Ukrainians say big battles, but Lysychansk not surrounded

KYIV/KONSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine, July 3 (Reuters) – At least three people were killed and dozens of homes damaged by blasts in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, the regional governor said on Sunday, while Ukrainian forces hit a Russian military base in occupied southern Ukraine.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported a number of explosions in the city of nearly 400,000 some 40km (25 miles) north of the border with Ukraine. read more

At least 11 apartment buildings and 39 houses were damaged, including five that were destroyed, Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

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Senior Russian lawmaker Andrei Klishas accused Ukraine of shelling Belgorod and called for a stern response.

“The death of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Belgorod are a direct act of aggression on the part of Ukraine and require the most severe – including a military – response,” Klishas wrote on Telegram.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of several attacks on Belgorod and other regions bordering Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility but has described the incidents as payback and “karma” for Russia’s actions.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine and Reuters could not independently verify the Russian accounts.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, however, said its air force had flown some 15 sorties “in virtually all directions of hostilities”.

“About 20 units of enemy equipment and two field ammunition depots were destroyed.”

In the Russian-occupied southern Ukraine city of Melitopol, Ukrainian forces had hit a military base with more than 30 strikes on Sunday, the city’s mayor said.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and cities levelled since Russia invaded in what Ukraine its Western allies say is an unprovoked war of aggression. Russia denies targeting civilians in what President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its neighbour.

‘CITY ON FIRE’

Russia is focussed on driving Ukrainian forces out of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since Russia’s first military intervention in Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian troops on the eastern front lines describe intense artillery barrages on residential areas, especially around Lysychansk, the last holdout city in Luhansk.

“The Russians are strengthening their positions in the Lysychansk area, the city is on fire,” Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Telegram. “They attacked the city with inexplicably brutal tactics.”

Russian forces seized Lysychansk’s sister city Sievierodonetsk, across the Siverskiy Donets river, last month after some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

A fresh hole is seen ahead of a funeral, among dozens of recent graves of people who have died since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, in the Walk of Heroes section of the cemetery, where people who served as military members, fire fighters and police officers are buried, as Russia’s attack continues, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, July 2, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis

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Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the pro-Moscow self-styled Luhansk People’s Republic, told Russian television, “Lysychansk has been brought under control,” but added: “Unfortunately, it is not yet liberated.”

Russian media showed video of Luhansk militia parading in Lysychansk streets waving flags and cheering, but Ukraine National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainian television the city remained in Ukrainian hands.

“Now there are fierce battles near Lysychansk, however, fortunately, the city is not surrounded and is under the control of the Ukrainian army,” Muzychuk said.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Zelenskiy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian forces had finally crossed the Siverskiy Donets river and were approaching the city from the north.

“This is indeed a threat. We shall see. I do not rule out any one of a number of outcomes here. Things will become much more clear within a day or two,” he said.

“The more Western weapons come to the front, the more the picture changes in favour of Ukraine.” Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for more weapons from the West, saying its forces are heavily outgunned.

‘VERY DIFFICULT PATH’

Far from the eastern fighting, Russia said it had hit army command posts in Mykolaiv near the vital Black Sea port of Odesa, where the mayor on Saturday had reported a number of powerful explosions.

“The Russian occupiers are launching systematic rocket attacks in the direction of Mykolaiv,” Ukraine’s general staff said on Sunday.

Ukrainian authorities said another missile slammed into an apartment block near Odesa on Friday, killing at least 21 people. A shopping mall was hit on Monday in the central city of Kremenchuk, killing at least 19.

Zelenskiy denounced the strikes on Friday as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike.”

In his nightly television address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said it would be a “very difficult path” to victory but Ukrainians must maintain their resolve and inflict losses on the “aggressor … so that every Russian remembers that Ukraine cannot be broken.”

Troops on a break from the fighting in Konstyantynivka, a market town about 115 km (70 miles) west of Lysychansk, said they had managed to keep the supply road to the embattled city open, for now, despite Russian bombardment.

“We still use the road because we have to, but it’s within artillery range of the Russians,” said one soldier as comrades relaxed nearby, munching on sandwiches or eating ice cream.

“The Russian tactic right now is to just shell any building we could locate ourselves at. When they’ve destroyed it, they move on to the next one,” he said.

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Blasts rock Ukraine’s Mykolaiv after Russian missiles kill 21 near Odesa

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  • ‘Stay in shelters!’ Mykolaiv mayor warns residents
  • 21 killed when missiles hit southern coast near Odesa on Friday
  • Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says sites deliberately targeted by Russia
  • Moscow denies targeting civilians

SERHIIVKA, Ukraine, July 2 (Reuters) – Powerful explosions rocked the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early on Saturday, the mayor said, a day after authorities said at least 21 people were killed when Russian missiles struck an apartment building near the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Air raid sirens sounded across the Mykolaiv region, which borders the vital exporting port of Odesa, before the blasts.

“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!” Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

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It was not immediately known what caused the explosions. Reuters could not independently verity the report.

Explosions flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday, another in a series of what Ukraine says are Russian missile attacks aimed at civilians.

In his nightly video address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced the strikes as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike.”

Kyiv says Moscow has intensified its long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline. Russia says it has been aiming at military sites. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cited President Vladimir Putin’s statements “that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets”.

SIFTING THROUGH RUBBLE

A Russian missile earlier this week struck a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.

Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what Moscow calls a “special operation” to root out nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.

Residents in the resort village of Serhiivka near Odesa helped workers pick through the rubble of the nine-storey apartment block, a section of which had been destroyed in Friday’s early-morning strike.

Walls and windows of a neighbouring 14-storey apartment block were damaged by the blast wave. Nearby holiday camps were also hit.

“We came here to the site, assessed the situation together with emergency workers and locals, and together helped those who survived. And those who unfortunately died. We helped to carry them away,” said Oleksandr Abramov, who lives nearby and had rushed to the scene when he heard the blast.

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, said 21 people had been confirmed killed, including a 12-year-old boy. Among the fatalities was an employee of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center set up by Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova in the resort.

The region will observe a day of mourning on Saturday for those killed during the attack, Bratchuk said.

The strike on Serhiivka took place shortly after Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a strategically important outcrop about 140 km (85 miles) southeast of Odesa that it seized on the war’s first day.

The chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, Valeriy Zaluzhny, accused Russia of failing to abide by its assertions that it had left Snake Island as a “gesture of good will”. On his Telegram channel, Zaluzhny said two Russian warplanes had taken off from a base in Crimea and bombed targets on the island on Friday evening.

He posted a video of what he said was the attack. Reuters could not confirm the authenticity of the video or the Russian action depicted. There was no immediate Russian comment.

Russian forces had used Snake Island to control the northwestern Black Sea and impose a blockade on Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters.

Moscow denies it is to blame for a food crisis, which it says is caused by Western sanctions hurting its own exports.

Putin met the president of Indonesia on Thursday and spoke by phone on Friday to the prime minister of India, promising both major food importers that Russia would remain a big supplier of grain.

Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain from the territories that Russian forces have seized since its invasion.

The Kremlin has denied stealing grain and did not reply to requests for comment on Friday.

NO GAS, ELECTRICITY, WATER

Russia’s stepped-up campaign of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities coincides with its forces grinding out success on the battlefield in the east, with the aim of forcing Ukraine to cede Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

Moscow has been on the verge of capturing Luhansk since taking the city of Sievierodonetsk last week after some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

Ukraine’s last bastion in Luhansk is Sievierodonetsk’s sister city, Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi Donets river, which is close to being encircled under Russian artillery barrages.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said four civilians were killed in the region in Russian shelling on Friday and 12 were injured.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported widespread Russian shelling on Friday, including Kharkiv in the north, and an artillery attack on the positions of Ukrainian troops in the border areas of Sumy and Chernihiv.

More weapons were needed in eastern and southern Ukraine, Zelenskiy said, as the Pentagon announced the United States was sending two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four additional counter-artillery radars and ammunition as part of its latest arms package. read more

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Russian missiles strike across Ukraine, says Kyiv

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  • Ukraine says Russia launches widespread shelling
  • Shelling hit chemical plant where civilians trapped
  • Ukraine forces withdraw from Sievierodonetsk
  • Dozens of missiles hit Ukrainian military bases

KYIV, June 25 (Reuters) – Russian missiles rained down across Ukraine on Saturday, hitting military facilities in the west and the north as well as a southern city as the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War Two entered its fifth month.

Russian artillery and air strikes pounded the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region on Friday, smashing into a chemical plant where hundreds of civilians were trapped, a Ukrainian official said on Saturday.

Ukraine said on Friday its troops had been ordered to retreat from Sievierodonetsk as there was very little left to defend after weeks of intense fighting, marking the biggest reversal for Ukraine since losing the port of Mariupol in May.

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News of the withdrawal came four months to the day since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border, unleashing a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and disrupted the global economy.

“48 cruise missiles. At night. Throughout whole Ukraine,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, cause panic and make people be afraid.”

The latest Russian advances appeared to bring Moscow closer to taking full control of Luhansk, one of Putin’s objectives, and sets the stage for Lysychansk to become the next main focus.

Vitaly Kiselev, an official in the Interior Ministry of the separatist Luhansk People’s Republic – recognised only by Russia – told Russia’s TASS news agency that it would take another week and a half to secure full control of Lysychansk.

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said Russian forces attacked Sievierodonetsk’s industrial zone and also attempted to enter and blockade Lysychansk on Saturday.

“There was an air strike at Lysychansk. Sievierodonetsk was hit by artillery,” Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk and the villages of Synetsky and Pavlograd and others has been shelled.

He made no mention of casualties at the Azot plant and Reuters could not immediately verify the information. Gaidai said 17 people had been evacuated on Friday from Lysychansk by police officers, rescuers and volunteers.

MILITARY FACILITIES

Kharatin Starskyi, the press officer of a Ukrainian National Guard brigade, said on television on Saturday that the flow of information about the withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk had been delayed to protect troops on the ground.

“During the last (several) days, an operation was conducted to withdraw our troops,” Starskyi said.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a “special military operation”, but abandoned an early advance on the capital Kyiv in the face of fierce resistance by Ukrainian fighters with the help of Western weapons.

Since then Moscow and its proxies have focused on the south and Donbas, an eastern territory made up of Luhansk and its neighbour Donetsk, deploying overwhelming artillery. read more

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that he feared Ukraine could face pressure to agree a peace deal with Russia. Johnson said the consequences of Putin getting his way in Ukraine would be dangerous to international security and a long-term economic disaster. read more

On Saturday, Russia again fired missiles at military and civilian infrastructure in the north near Ukraine’s second-biggest city Kharkiv through to Sievierodonetsk in the east, said the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Several regional governors reported shelling attacks on towns across Ukraine on Saturday.

Russia denies targeting civilians. Kyiv and the West say Russian forces have committed war crimes against civilians.

The governor of Lviv region in western Ukraine, Maxim Kozytskyi, said in a video posted online that six missiles were fired from the Black Sea at the Yavoriv base near the border with Poland. Four hit the target but two were destroyed.

Vitaliy Bunechko, governor of the Zhytomyr region in the north of the country, said strikes on a military target killed at least one soldier.

“Nearly 30 missiles were launched at one military infrastructure facility very near to the city of Zhytomyr,” said Bunechko, adding that nearly 10 missiles had been intercepted and destroyed.

In the south, Oleksandr Senkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv near the Black Sea, said five cruise missiles hit the city and nearby areas on Saturday. The number of casualties is being clarified.

‘ORDERLY RETREATS’

Ukraine on Friday again pressed for more arms, with its top general, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, telling his U.S. counterpart in a phone call that Kyiv needed “fire parity” with Moscow to stabilise the situation in Luhansk. read more

South of Sievierodonetsk, Ukrainian soldiers also withdrew from the towns of Hirske and Zolote in the face of overwhelming Russian forces, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Ukraine’s foreign minister played down the significance of the possible loss of more territory in the Donbas.

“Putin wanted to occupy the Donbas by May 9. We are (there) on June 24 and still fighting. Retreating from a few battles does not mean losing the war at all,” Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The British defence ministry said on Saturday that Russia had likely withdrawn several generals from key command roles in the Ukraine conflict this month.

The war has had a massive impact on the global economy and European security arrangements, 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 West has imposed an unprecedented package of sanctions on Russia, its top companies and its business and political elite in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a major sign of support, European Union leaders this week approved Ukraine’s formal candidature to join the bloc – a decision that Russia said on Friday amounted to the EU’s “enslaving” of neighbouring countries. read more

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Sam Holmes, Edwina Gibbs and David Clarke

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Ukrainians set to quit embattled Sievierodonetsk as Russians inch forward

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  • Ukraine EU candidacy will strengthen Europe-Zelenskiy
  • Ukraine forces take up new positions in Sievierodonetsk
  • Russia shells targets across the Donbas
  • War marks four months since invasion

KYIV, June 24 (Reuters) – Ukraine signalled on Friday its troops were withdrawing from the city of Sievierodonetsk, scene of weeks of heavy fighting, a move that would be a significant setback in its struggle to defeat Russian forces.

Provincial governor Serhiy Gaidai said troops in the city had already received the order to move to new positions, but he did not indicate whether they had already done so or where exactly they were going.

“Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense,” Gaidai said on Ukrainian television.

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The troops will “have to be withdrawn”, he said.

Gaidai was speaking on the day that marked four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border, unleashing a conflict that has now killed thousands of combatants and civilians, uprooted several million people, and has seen Ukrainian cities blasted to bits by Russian artillery and air strikes.

The war has also fuelled a global energy and food crisis.

Some of the heaviest fighting of the war has taken place in Sievierodonetsk, where street-by-street combat has raged for a month with Russia painstakingly taking more ground.

The battle is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of Luhansk province, which along with Donetsk makes up the Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

Sievierodonetsk’s fall would leave only Lysychansk – its sister city on the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets River – remaining in Ukrainian hands.

Russia’s tactics since its troops failed to capture the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the war involve ferocious bombardments of cities and towns followed by assaults by ground troops.

Analysts say the Russian forces are taking heavy casualties and face problems in leadership, supplies and morale. Nonetheless, they are grinding down Ukrainian resistance and making incremental gains in the east and south.

Ukraine’s general staff said on Friday the Russians were firing from tanks, mortars, artillery and jets, as well as mounting air strikes near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk and nearby towns. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.

EU BOOST

Despite Ukraine’s battlefield difficulties, it has been bolstered by support from the West. On Thursday, European leaders approved Ukraine’s formal candidature to join the European Union.

Although the journey to full membership will take years, the move was a boost to Ukrainian morale – and will anger Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday their decision to accept Kyiv’s candidacy was among the most important for Ukraine since it broke from the Soviet Union 31 years ago.

“But this decision is not just being made for the benefit of Ukraine,” he said. “It is the biggest step towards strengthening Europe that could have been made right now…when the Russian war is testing our ability to preserve freedom and unity.”

Moscow launched what it calls its “special military operation” on Feb. 24, saying it wanted to ensure security on its borders. Kyiv and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked invasion to grab Ukrainian territory and bring the country back into Moscow’s fold.

Russian control of the Donbas would allow it to link up with the already occupied Crimea to the south, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian forces were blocking Ukrainian sea communications in the northwest part of the Black Sea and were seeking to resume the offensive in the Mykolaviv area, the general staff said.

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.

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry and Angus MacSwan; Editing by Himani Sarkar and William Maclean

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EU grants Ukraine candidate status in ‘historic moment’

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  • EU leaders launch Ukraine’s membership process
  • 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.

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“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

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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.”

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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Angus MacSwan, Alexandra Hudson and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Catherine Evans and Rosalba O’Brien

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World

‘This is a victory’: smiling Zelenskiy promises EU membership, Russia defeat

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June 23 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday declared the EU’s move to accept Ukraine as a candidate for accession as a victory and promised not to rest until Russia’s defeat and full membership had been secured.

European Union leaders formally accepted Ukraine as a candidate to join the 27-nation bloc, a bold geopolitical move hailed by Ukraine and the EU itself as an historic moment. read more

“This is a victory,” a smiling Zelenskiy said in a brief video posted to his Instagram channel, noting Ukraine had waited 30 years for this moment.

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a meeting with local authorities during a visit to the southern city of Mykolaiv, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Ukraine June 18, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

“We can defeat the enemy, rebuild Ukraine, join the EU, and then we can rest,” he said in a low voice.

“Or perhaps we won’t rest at all – our children would take offence. But without any doubt, we will win.”

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said Kyiv would quickly implement the plan needed for accession talks to begin.

“Ukraine will be in the EU,” he tweeted.

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Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ronald Popeski;
Editing by Mark Porter and Sandra Maler

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World

NATO warns of long Ukraine war as Russian assaults follow EU boost for Kyiv

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  • NATO’s Stoltenberg says war could last years
  • Allies must show they will back Ukraine for long haul -Johnson
  • Ukraine admits setback at village near Sievierodonetsk
  • ‘All that is ours we will take back” -Zelenskiy
  • Two Azovstal defence commanders moved to Russia for probe -TASS

KYIV, June 19 (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of NATO said on Sunday, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.

Jens Stoltenberg said the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper said. read more

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the military alliance, was quoted as saying.

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“Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke of a need to prepare for a long war.

This meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader”, Johnson wrote in an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times.

“Time is the vital factor,” he wrote. “Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.”

Ukraine received a significant boost on Friday when the European Commission recommended it for candidate status, a decision EU nations are expected to endorse at a summit this week. read more

That would put Ukraine on course to realise an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, even if membership could take years.

INTENSIFIED ATTACKS

Russian attacks intensified on Ukraine’s battlefields.

The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of Luhansk – one of the two provinces making up the Donbas – faced heavy artillery and rocket fire again, the Ukrainian military said.

“The situation in Sievierodonetsk is very difficult,” said Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, adding that Russian forces, using drones for air reconnaissance, were adjusting strikes quickly in response to defence changes.

“Areas near the bridges have been heavily shelled again,” Gaidai said in an online post on Sunday, adding that the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of people had been sheltering, was hit twice.

“Fighting continues for full control of the city,” the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a daily update on Sunday.

Analysts at the Washington Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area”.

In Sievierodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk across the river, the bodies of two civilians had been found, Gaidai said, adding, “The destruction of housing in the city is increasing like an avalanche.”

Ukraine’s military acknowledged that “the enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine”, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk.

Russia’s state news agency TASS said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists.

Russian missiles hit a gasworks in the district of Izyum to the northwest, and Russian rockets raining on a suburb of Kharkiv, the second-largest city, hit a municipal building, caused a fire, but no casualties, Ukrainian authorities said.

They reported shelling further west in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, saying on Saturday that three Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in the town of Novomoskovsk, wounding 11 people. read more

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk, the other province in the Donbas, said a civilian was killed and 11 wounded in shelling on Saturday.

The Ukrainian armed forces general staff said Russian troops on a reconnaissance mission near the town of Krasnopillya had been beaten back with heavy casualties on Saturday.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

Two top commanders of fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern port of Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for investigation, TASS said. read more

ZELENSKIY DEFIANCE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose defiance has inspired his people and won global respect, said he had visited soldiers on the southern frontline in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 km (340 miles) south of Kyiv.

“I talked to our defenders – the military, the police, the National Guard,” he said in a video on the Telegram message app on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train.

“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” Zelenskiy said. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.”

Another video showed Zelenskiy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen. read more

Zelenskiy has stayed mostly in Kyiv since Russia invaded, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkiv and two eastern cities near battles. read more

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals in ordering troops into Ukraine was to halt the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and keep Moscow’s southern neighbour outside the West’s sphere of influence.

But the war, which has killed thousands, reduced cities to rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect – convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join NATO – and helping to pave the way for Ukraine’s EU membership bid.

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Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Grant McCool and William Mallard

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