Article author:
Reuters
Simon Lewis and Max Hander
KYIV / SLOVIANSK — Ukrainian defenders fight desperately to withstand a large Russian attack in the Donetsk region, with enemies I fired a cannon and paved it. Ukrainian officials showed on Wednesday the way ground troops would move forward.
After Russian troops ruled Lysychansik on Sunday, Ukrainian troops, the last fort of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, prepared for an attack on Donetsk, with both Slovyansk and Kramatorsk cities in Russia. It was on the shooting line.
Donetsk and Luhansk make up the industrialized eastern part of Ukraine, which has experienced the greatest battles in Europe for generations.
There was a fierce battle on the edge of the Luhansk region, its governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television that Russian regular and reserve forces were sent there with obvious efforts to cross the Siverskiy Donets River. Said that.
"We are holding back our enemies at the border between the Luhansk and Donetsk regions," Guydai wrote in Telegram Wednesday.
"The occupiers have suffered significant losses, as they admit," said Guydai, a Russian prisoner of war and Russian soldiers in the corrupt cities of Sievieroronesk and Lysychans'k. He quoted the testimony from the residents who spoke with him.
Guydai previously stated that he was engaged in widespread artillery when Russian troops launched an attack on Donetsk.
Russia has stated in its two self-proclaimed People's Republics that it wants to take control of Ukraine as a whole on behalf of the Moscow-backed separatists.
On Tuesday, Russian troops struck markets and residential areas in Slovyansk, killing at least two people and injuring seven, local officials said.
A Reuters reporter at the scene saw yellow smoke swirling from an auto supply store, and when firefighters tried to extinguish the flame, the flame swallowed a line of stalls in the market.
Donetsk Governor Pablo Kirirenko said Slovyansk and nearby Kramatorsk were heavily bombarded overnight. "There is no safe place in the Donetsk region without artillery."
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, demilitarizing the country. Called a "special military operation" to eradicate nationalists and protect Russian speakers.
Kyiv and the West say Russia is accusing Moscow of denying war crime invaders of unprovoked imperial-style land acquisition in its fellow former Soviet Republic. increase.
Ruined City
Lysychans'k, once with a population of 100,000, is in the ruins. The building is scorched and pierced with shells, the car is upside down, and the streets are littered with rubble. This is a testament to the fierceness of the battle it endured.
Tatiana Gruschenko, 45, who lives in Lysychans'k, told Reuters that she is still evacuated to basements and bomb shelters, including children and the elderly.
Gruschenko stayed in Lysychans'k with her family because she said she didn't think she was safe in other parts of Ukraine.
"The whole of Ukraine has been bombarded. It's everywhere in western Ukraine, central Ukraine, Dnipro, Kieu, so we don't endanger our lives, at least stay at home. "I decided," she added.
Gruschenko now wants peace to return to her ruined city, but for the elderly Sergei and Evgenia, the prospect of rebuilding from the ruins is daunting. ..
"I have to get out of here somehow," said Sergei, who sits in a dark shelter with only flashlights.
"The roof is broken. You have to fix it, but how and how do you pay for it ... winter is coming soon." Said Evgenia.
Luhansk Governor Guydai said Russian troops were plundering Lysychans'k and its twin city, Sieviero Donetsk.
"They are hunting down pro-Ukrainian residents. They are dealing with collaborators, identifying the apartment where the military lived, invading and dressing. I'm wearing it, "he said.
"Everything is destroyed. The entire collection of Ukrainian books. This is Déjà vu – Nazi Germany in 1939."
Reuters confirms this report immediately. I could not do it.
Russia states that it does not target civilians.
Beyond the "Long War"
Moscow has stepped up the rhetoric of the war with Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, saying Ukraine has become a "state sponsor of terrorism". ..
The Speaker of the House said that Russia had previously abandoned its attacks on the capital Kyiv and the second largest city, Kharkiv, in the face of fierce resistance, and that war was expressed beyond Donbus. It was suggested that the purpose could be expanded.
As another sign that Russia is preparing for a long war, Duma passed two bills in his first reading. This allows the government to require businesses to supply troops and have staff work overtime. Supports aggression.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told President Volodymyr Zelensky over the phone that he believed that Ukrainian troops could recapture the territory recently occupied by Russia.
Johnson has updated Zelenskiy with the latest delivery of British military equipment, including 10 self-propelled artillery systems and wandering ammunition. These will arrive in the next few days to weeks.
The Russian invasion has killed thousands, evacuated millions and flattened cities, especially in the Russian-speaking eastern and southeastern parts of Ukraine. Also, because Ukraine and Russia are both major grain producers, they are raising global energy and food prices and increasing the risk of famine in poor countries.
According to official documents, Ukraine has three Russian flagships in Turkey as part of Kieu's efforts to investigate what it says is the theft of grain from the territory occupied by Russia. Requested to assist in the investigation of the ship. Russia has denied stealing Ukrainian grain.
(Report by Reuters, written by Michael Perry, edited by Raju Gopara Krishnan&Simon Cameron Moore)
