Ukrainian officials said that as Russia focused its attack on the Donbass industrial area, Russian forces launched attacks on cities in eastern Ukraine today, repeatedly destroying many homes and killing civilians with mortar shells.
Unable to take either Kiev or Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, Russia is attempting to seize the remainder of the two provinces of Donbass, Donetsk and Luhansk, claimed by pro-Russian separatists, and to trap Ukrainian forces in a pocket on the main eastern front.
In the far east of the Ukrainian-controlled Donbass region, the city of Sievierodonetsk on the east bank of the Siverskiy Donets River and the twin Lysychansk on the west bank became an important battlefield. Russian forces were advancing from three directions to encircle them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said the Russians launched an attack on Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday, and the city is under constant mortar fire.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said six civilians were killed and at least eight injured, mostly near air raid shelters, in Sievierodonetsk.
“At this time, the Russian invaders are attacking Sievierodonetsk with artillery support,” Gaidai said.
The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday it had repelled nine Russian attacks in the Donbass in which Moscow troops used aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery, tanks, mortars and missiles, killing at least 14 civilians.
Reuters was unable to immediately confirm information about the clashes.
In the western Donbass city of Sloviansk, many residents took advantage of what Ukraine said was a lull in the Russian offensive to leave. “My house was bombed, I have nothing,” said Vera Safronova, who was sitting in a carriage among the evacuees.
Along with the Donbass region, Moscow is also targeting southern Ukraine and is blocking ships that would normally export Ukrainian grain and sunflower oil to the Black Sea, increasing prices globally and threatening lives.
“It is not in Russia’s interest that people starve abroad because of Russia,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
Russia, which blames Ukraine and the West for the food crisis, said it is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for ships carrying food to leave Ukraine, but in return Western sanctions must be lifted.
source: Noticias
