Russian leaders meet Belarusian correspondent Alexander Lukaschenko on Saturday in St. Petersburg, where Lukaschenko has an "aggressive" and "conflicting" policy with Belarus' neighbors Lithuania and Poland. He told Putin that he was concerned about.
He asked Putin to help Belarus respond to what he said was a nuclear-armed flight by the US-led NATO alliance near the Belarusian border. The Iskander-M system has a range of up to 500 km and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.
News followed reports from the Ukrainian Northern Military Command that Russia launched 20 rockets from Belarus targeting the village of Desna in the northern region of Chernihiv. In addition to rockets launched from the ground, Ukrainian Air Force Command said the Russian long-range Tu-22 bomber was the first to be deployed from Belarus. Neighbors host Russian troops and were used as a stage before Russia invaded Ukraine, but their troops have not yet crossed the border.
Ukrainian military intelligence said the attack was directly related to Moscow's efforts to bring Belarus into the war.
In the west, a Russian rocket "crashed into a military object in Yavoriu," said Lviv Governor Maxim Kozitzky. He did not reveal the details of the target, but Yavoriu has a considerable military base used to train fighters, including foreigners who volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
On Saturday morning, about 30 Russian rockets were launched in the Zhytomyr region of central Ukraine, killing one Ukrainian soldier, said regional governor Vitaliy Buchenko.
Ukrainian nuclear regulators reported that Russian bombardment had damaged a nuclear research facility in a city in the northeastern part of Kharkiv on Saturday. In an online post, the strike stated that it had damaged parts of the site's buildings and infrastructure, but did not affect the area containing nuclear fuel. So far, the radiation levels have remained within the normal range.
"The potential for new damage that could directly affect the state of nuclear and radiation safety remains high due to the bombardment by Russian troops." Warned.
Sievierodonetsk collapses
Sievierodonetsk mayor Oleksandr Stryuk appeared on national television on Saturday, Russian troops completely occupied the city and was largely abandoned after weeks of heavy bombardment. Said that.
Luhansk District Governor Serhiy Haidai told Facebook on Saturday that Russian and separatist fighters are trying to block nearby Lysychans'k from the south. The two cities and their surrounding areas are the focus of attacks aimed at occupying the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Interfax news agency, a separatist spokesman, said Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lysychans'k and the fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. I quoted Andrey Marochiko. There was no immediate comment on the allegations from the Ukrainian side.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak with his Western allies at the G7 Summit in Germany on Sunday at a video link with the NATO Summit in Madrid next week. .. US President Joe Biden will attend both meetings.
White House officials said Wednesday that Biden would discuss US proposals to increase pressure on Russia with G7 leaders and address the impact of the Ukrainian war on global energy and food prices.
Some information in this report is from the Associated Press and Reuters.