Russo-Ukrainian War: Russia launched an attack on Ukraine on February 24.
Kyiv:
Russia’s mayor said on Saturday that Russian troops had “completely occupied” the key Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after weeks of fighting, the country’s mayor said on Saturday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Moscow will be able to send nuclear-capable missiles to Belarus within months.
The capture of the industrial center of Severodonetsk was an important strategic victory for Moscow as it sought to gain full control over the eastern part of the country.
It was the backdrop of weeks of battles, but the Ukrainian military said on Friday that its strongest forces would withdraw to better defend the neighboring city of Lysychansk.
“The city has been completely occupied by the Russians,” mayor Oleksandr Striuk said on Saturday.
Hours earlier, pro-Moscow separatists said Russian troops and their allies had entered Lysychansk, across the river from Severodonetsk.
“Street fighting is happening now,” the separatist representative, Andrei Marochko, said on Telegram, in a statement that could not be independently verified.
In Saint Petersburg, Putin said on Saturday that Russia would deliver nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles to Belarus in the coming months, when he received Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
He also suggested upgrading Belarus’ warplanes so that they could carry nuclear weapons, in comments broadcast on Russian television.
Putin has repeatedly mentioned nuclear weapons since his country launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, in what the West sees as a warning to the West not to intervene.
Drag into Belarus
Ukraine said it came under a “massive shelling” early Saturday morning from neighboring Belarus, which, despite being an ally of Russia, is not officially involved in the conflict.
Ukraine’s northern military command said 20 rockets “fired from the territory of Belarus and from the air” at the village of Desna in northern Chernigiv.
It said infrastructure had been affected, but there were no reports of casualties.
Belarus has provided Moscow with logistical support since the 24 February invasion, especially in the first few weeks, and like Russia has been targeted by Western sanctions – but officially not participate in the conflict.
“Today’s attack is directly related to the Kremlin’s efforts to draw Belarus as a belligerent to the war in Ukraine,” Ukraine’s intelligence service said.
‘Ukraine can win’
Four months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, they concentrated on the eastern Donbas region, gradually gaining profits despite fierce resistance.
Also capturing Lysychansk would allow Russia to focus its attention on Kramatorsk and Slovyansk further west in an attempt to conquer the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
Russia’s breakthrough comes before a feverish week of Western diplomacy, as US President Joe Biden flies to Europe for the G7 summit starting Sunday and talks with NATO over the weekend. .
“Ukraine can win and it will,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement ahead of the summit. But they need our support to do so.
“Now is not the time to give up Ukraine,” he added.
Western allies will review the effectiveness of sanctions imposed so far on Moscow, consider possible new aid to Ukraine and begin to turn to longer-term reconstruction plans .
The European Union showed strong support on Thursday in granting Ukraine candidacy, although the road to membership is long.
Moscow dismissed the EU’s decision as a move to “contain Russia” geopolitically.
Evacuate the Azot tree
As in the southern port of Mariupol before it, the battle at Severodonetsk devastated the city.
On Saturday, the mayor of Severodonetsk Striuk said civilians had begun to evacuate the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of people were hiding from Russian shelling.
“These people have spent almost three months of their lives in basements, shelters,” he said. “It’s tough emotionally and physically.”
Now, they need medical and psychological support, he added.
Pro-Moscow separatists say Russian forces and their allies have taken control of the Azot plant and “evacuated” more than 800 civilians who were sheltering there.
The predominantly Russian-speaking Donbas have long been the focal point of Russia.
Since 2014, it has been partly under the control of pro-Moscow separatists, who have established self-declared breakaway republics in Lugansk and Donetsk.
Human remains
Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes and country since the invasion, most to neighboring Poland. Some foreigners have taken another route to fight.
On Saturday, Russia said its military had destroyed 80 Polish warplanes in airstrikes on a factory in Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region, a claim that could not be verified.
Russia has also stepped up attacks in the northern city of Kharkiv in recent days.
An AFP team on Saturday watched a 10-story administrative building in the city center be hit by a rocket overnight, causing a fire but no casualties.
It was bombed, prompting one soldier on the scene to note: “The Russians are finishing what they started.”
On Friday, the same reporters found a scavenger hunt in the town of Chuguiv, southeast of Kharkiv, where an attack earlier this week killed six people.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from the feed provided.)
