Belarus has provided Moscow with logistical support since the 24 February invasion. (File)
Kyiv, Ukraine:
Ukraine said it had come under a “massive shelling” on Saturday from neighboring Belarus, a Russian ally not officially involved in the conflict, a day after announcing its withdrawal from the war city. Severodonetsk strategy.
Ukraine’s Northern Military Command said in a statement that 20 missiles had targeted the village of Desna in northern Chernigiv, adding that infrastructure had been hit, but there were no reports. 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.
The attacks come ahead of a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarussian counterpart and close ally Alexander Lukashenko in Saint Petersburg on Saturday.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned Brussels’ decision to grant Ukraine official EU candidate status as a move to “contain Russia” geopolitically.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “The decision” confirms that the geopolitical monopoly in the space of the CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States) is continuing to actively work to contain Russia”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Western allies will gather on Sunday at the G7 leaders’ summit in Germany, where President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to speak.
US President Joe Biden will attend the G7 and the NATO military alliance summit in Madrid next week.
‘Slow War’
In face-to-face negotiations, Western allies will review the effectiveness of sanctions imposed so far on Moscow, consider possible new aid to Ukraine, and begin redirecting to Ukraine. longer-term reconstruction plans.
The European Union issued a statement of strong support on Thursday granting Ukraine candidacy, although the road to membership is long.
Moscow dismissed the EU’s decision as a move to “contain Russia” geopolitically.
After four months, the conflict is still centered on the Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have finally abandoned a key checkpoint, the industrial city of Severodonetsk.
Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region that includes the city, said on Friday that the army had received orders to withdraw.
“It doesn’t make any sense to stay in positions that have been under continuous artillery fire for months,” he said on Telegram, adding that 90% of the city was damaged.
Severodonetsk has been the scene of weeks of street battles as the Ukrainians boldly laid out a stubborn defense.
Capturing the city and its twin across the river, Lysychansk, would give the Russians effective control of Lugansk, and allow them to move deeper into the wider Donbas.
According to Ivan Klyszcz, an international relations researcher at Estonia’s Tartu University, Ukraine’s withdrawal from Severodonetsk will not change the course of the war.
“The big picture – of a slow-moving war for entrenched positions – has barely changed. We can’t expect a big Russian breakthrough,” he told AFP.
Separately, Russia said on Saturday its military had destroyed up to 80 Polish warplanes in “precision strikes” on a factory in Konstantinovka “in the Donetsk region. independently verified.
Lysychansk was shot
Gaiday said the Russians are now entering Lysychansk, which is facing increasingly heavy shelling.
The situation for those who remained in the city was bleak.
Liliya Nesterenko, who was cycling to a friend’s house to feed her pet, said her home had no gas, water or electricity, forcing her and her mother to cook over a campfire.
But the 39-year-old is optimistic about the city’s defenses: “I believe in our Ukrainian army, they should (can) cope.”
Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the Moscow-backed Lugansk army, said on Friday that all villages in the neighboring regions of Zolote and Hirske are now under the control of Russian or pro-Russian forces. .
In a video on Marochko’s Telegram channel, a man in military uniform can be seen replacing the Ukrainian flag with the Zolote emblem with a hammer and sickle red flag.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that up to 2,000 people are “under complete blockade” near Zolote and Hirske, and about half of Zolote is under Russian control.
Human remains
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 carrion-eating wild dog in the town of Chuguiv, southeast of Kharkiv, where an attack earlier this week left six people dead.
Russian news agencies reported that in the southern Kherson region, an official appointed by Moscow was killed by an explosive device installed in his car.
Kherson deputy director of Moscow, Kirill Stremousov, said the head of the family, youth and sports sector had died “due to an act of terrorism”.
This is the first confirmed death of a pro-Russian official in a series of attacks on pro-Kremlin officials in regions of Ukraine under Russian control.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from the feed provided.)
