Russian forces captured parts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodnetsk on Tuesday after street fighting with Ukrainian defenders, extending Moscow’s control over one of Kyiv’s last cities in the Donbass region, the most recent of its Ukraine offensive. be focused.
Russia has intensified its pressure to capture the strategically important city as Western leaders take new measures to punish Moscow for its invasion. The Biden administration is planning to provide Ukraine with precision-guided rocket systems to enhance Ukraine’s firepower against Russian troops.
It is unclear how many of the new systems, which US officials say can hit targets from 40 miles or more, the US will provide, but one official said they could reach Ukraine within weeks. Training to use them will start quickly and will take at least 10 days.
Western governments have expressed hope that the continued flow of weapons to the Kyiv government could change the count of fighting in eastern Ukraine, where Russia seeks to capture the Donbass, once Ukraine’s industrial stronghold, which borders Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address late Monday that “the Russian military is trying to mobilize heavy forces in some areas to put as much pressure on our defenders as possible.” “There, in the Donbass, the Russian army has gathered maximum combat power.”
Leonid Paschnik, the Russian-backed leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, told the Russian state-run TASS news agency on Tuesday that a third of Severodnetsk is controlled by separatist forces. Videos of Chechen fighters allied with Russia in the city showed soldiers moving non-stop in the city centre. The Luhansk region and neighboring Donetsk make up the Donbass region.
The fall of Severodonetsk brought the Russians closer to their goal of controlling the Donbass, although Russia’s attack on the city came at a high cost to its armed forces, suffering from a lack of manpower after their failed attempt to take Kyiv. Is.
“Street fighting continues in Severodnetsk,” said Luhansk region governor Serhi Haidai, adding that Ukrainian forces were trying to move Russian troops to the outskirts of the city.
If Ukraine ceded Severodonetsk to the Russians, Kyiv’s troops would likely withdraw to the neighboring city of Lisichansk, which overlooks Severodonetsk across the Siversky Donets River.
The European Union said on Monday it would introduce a sixth sanctions package that would include sanctions on Russian oil over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The embargo would include exemptions for oil delivered from Russia via pipelines, an amount that makes up a third of the EU’s oil purchases from Russia. EU officials said by the end of this year, the embargo would cover 90% of past Russian oil imports. This will be phased out over several months.
Russia partly cut natural gas distribution to state-owned Dutch energy firm Gastera after it refused to pay in rubles as demanded by Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.
The company, which is 50%-owned by the Dutch government, joins Poland, Bulgaria and Finland, whose gas supplies were suspended by Russia over a payment mechanism. However, some of Europe’s largest natural-gas utilities have agreed new payment terms with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC.