Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - On Sunday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy admitted that Kyiv's forces had left Lysychans...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - On Sunday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy admitted that Kyiv's forces had left Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region after a long-lasting Russian attack. However, he promised to take back control of the area with the help of long-range weapons from the West.
Russia said that taking the city of Lysychansk less than a week after taking the nearby city of Sievierdonetsk gave it full control of the eastern Luhansk region. This is a political win that helps the Kremlin reach a key war goal. Now, the focus of the battle moves to the nearby Donetsk region, which Kiev still controls in large parts.
"If our army commanders pull people back from places on the front where the enemy has the most firepower, like Lysychansk, then it can only mean one thing," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
"That will happen because of our strategies and the fact that we have more modern weapons now."
Zelenskiy said that Russia was putting most of its firepower on the front in Donbas, but that Ukraine would hit back with long-range weapons like the HIMARS rocket launchers that came from the United States.
"Just as important is the fact that we protect the lives of our soldiers and people. We will rebuild the walls and take back the land, but the people must come first "Zelenskiy said.
Since giving up on an attack on the capital Kyiv, Russia has focused its military operations on the industrial heartland of the Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Since 2014, separatists backed by Russia have been fighting Ukraine in these areas.
Russia says it is taking over the Luhansk region to give it to the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic, which is backed by Russia and whose independence it recognised before the war.
The defence ministry said that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that Luhansk had been "liberated." Earlier, Russia said that its forces had taken over villages near Lysychansk and surrounded the city.
The military command of Ukraine said that its troops were forced to leave the city.
"If they kept trying to defend the city, it would end in death. It was decided to pull back in order to save the lives of Ukrainian defenders "In a statement on social media, it said.
Officials in Ukraine say that talk of "liberating" Ukrainian land is just Russian propaganda, and they say that residential areas have been hit by heavy artillery fire.
At least six people were killed when powerful shelling from multiple rocket launchers hit the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Sunday. This happened west of Lysychansk in the Donetsk region.
COSTLY CAMPAIGN
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, thousands of civilians have been killed and cities have been destroyed. Kyiv says that Russia is targeting civilians on purpose. Moscow doesn't agree.
Russia says that a "special military operation" in Ukraine is meant to keep nationalists from hurting Russian speakers. Ukraine and its Western allies say that this is just a stupid excuse for a clear attempt to take over territory.
Neil Melvin of the London-based think tank RUSI said that Russia would try to show its advance in Luhansk as a big moment in the war, but it cost Russia's military a lot.
"Ukraine has never said that they could defend everything. They have been trying to slow down the Russian attack and do as much damage as possible while getting ready for a counteroffensive "he said.
KHARKIV STRIKES
Zelenskiy said that Russia had attacked Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk with rockets in a "brutal" way. He said that in Sloviansk alone, six people had died and 20 had been hurt.
Russia's defence ministry also said on Sunday that it had hit the military infrastructure of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the northeast. A Reuters reporter said that Ukrainian forces had been building fortifications after being shelled every night.
Some people in Kharkiv threw things into a large crater made by a rocket strike early in the morning, while others got help fixing their homes.
Oleksii Mihulin, a local, told Reuters that the wife was lucky she woke up early in the morning because the roof fell right where she was sleeping.
On the Russian side of the border, about 70 km (44 miles) from Kharkiv, there were explosions in Belgorod on Sunday, which Russia said killed at least three people and destroyed homes.
A Belgorod resident told Reuters, "The sound was so loud that I jumped up, woke up, got very scared, and started screaming." The explosions happened around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT).
Moscow says that Kiev has attacked Belgorod and other areas bordering Ukraine many times. Kyiv has never said that it was to blame for any of these things.
MILITARY BASE HIT
Ukraine said that its air force had flown about 15 missions "in almost all directions of hostilities," destroying equipment and two ammunition depots.
Melitopol is a city in southern Ukraine that is controlled by Russia. The city's exiled mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said that Ukrainian forces hit a military logistics base more than 30 times on Sunday. A Russian-appointed official said that the city had been hit by strikes.
The reports from the battlefield could not be checked by Reuters on their own.
Ukraine has asked the West many times to speed up the delivery of weapons, saying that its forces are badly outgunned.
During a trip to Kyiv, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his country would send Ukraine more armoured vehicles and tighten sanctions against Russia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told ARD that Germany was talking with its allies about security guarantees for Ukraine after the war. However, it was clear that these would "not be the same as if someone were a member of NATO."
