Russia confirms occupation of Lyman, a major locality in eastern Ukraine

As a result of the joint action of the militia units of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian Armed Forces, the town of Lyman was completely liberated from Ukrainian nationalists.the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The defense of the territory of this republic self -expressing of pro-Russian separatists were indicated on Friday in the Telegram to have took complete control by Lyman, incl supports of the Russian army.

The Ukrainian army did not comment on this information on Saturday morning.

On Friday, President Volodimyr Zelensky acknowledged in a video that the situation in this region of Donbass is very difficult. But he felt that if the occupiers thought that Lyman and Sievierodonetsk would be theirs, they were mistaken. Donbass will be Ukrainian.

In Sievierodonetsk, the bombing continued […] the army is just destroying the city, confirmed in his Telegram account the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergueiï Gaïdaï. According to him, the Russian army entered the suburbs of the city where they suffered heavy losseswhile Ukrainian forces tried to evict the Russians from a hotel.

But the governor said Sievierodonetsk was not cut of Russian and separatist forces. Access to humanitarian aid remains possible, he said.

He responded to a police officer from the pro-Russian separatist republic of Lugansk, quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, as saying on Friday that currently surrounded the city of Sievierodonetskand Ukrainian troops were trapped there.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine added on Saturday in the Telegram that [l’ennemi] conducted attack operations in the areas of Sievierodonetsk, Oskolonivka, Toshkivka districts, in vain, suffered losses and retreated from previously occupied positions.

According to Mr. Gaïdaï, the capture in Sievierodonetsk will be a mighty victory for Russian forces.

” Their army has not had great success and they have to feed their people something, he said on Ukrainian television. “

After the unsuccessful offensives in Kyiv and Kharkiv (northeast) at the start of the war launched by Russia on February 24, Russian forces were concentrated in eastern Ukraine, with the stated goal of controlling the entirety of the Donbass mining basin. , which is partially controlled. since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists supported by Moscow.

In his daily video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday night accused Moscow of genocide in the Donbass, where Russian forces are conducting deportations at mass killings of civilians.

US President Joe Biden also used this expression.

For its part, Moscow justified its aggression on Ukraine by genocide to be carried out by Ukrainians against the Russian -speaking population of Donbass.

At the same time, as it intensified the offensive in eastern Ukraine, the Russian army delivered a new demonstration of force into the Arctic on Saturday with a successful launch of a hypersonic missile.

The Zircon missile was fired from the Admiral Gorchkov frigate in the Barents Sea at a target in Arctic White Sea waters, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The first official firing of this missile began in October 2020.

The first Russian ship entered the port of Mariupol

Meanwhile, Russian forces assembled 30 T-62 tanks as well as other armored vehicles and Grad missile systems in the Kherson region (south), which were hit by Mi-8 helicopters, the Southern Command said on Saturday, the Ukrainian army in Facebook.

On Saturday in Mariupol, a southern city raided by the Russians for three months before it was finally seized last week, a first cargo boat entered the port, according to the official TASS news agency quoting a spokesman for to the Pro-Russian Port Authority.

The Ukrainian Navy reacted on Facebook calling the announcement a handling because according to him, while continuing to disregard the standards of international maritime law, Russian shipping groups continue to block the sending of civilians into the waters of the Black Seas and Azov.

While Ukraine, a major agricultural power, will no longer be able to export its cereals due to blockades at its ports, Vladimir Putin on Friday denied any responsibility by Russia for the world food crisis in an interview. on the phone with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, according to a statement from the Kremlin.

For his part, President Zelensky is expected to address Monday via videoconference with EU leaders gathered in Brussels. They are expected to once again address the proposed EU embargo on Russia’s oil, which is still blocked by Hungary.

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Silouanov said Friday night in a televised interview that Russia should reap this year an additional 1000 billion rubles (13.7 billion euros) from its hydrocarbon exports, raising the prices. A portion will be allocated to the continuation of the offensive in Ukraine, according to him.

kyiv again demanded more weapons from the West on Friday.

Some partners avoid providing the necessary weapons for fear of growing up. Climbing, really? Russia already uses the heaviest non-nuclear weapons, burning people alive. Maybe it’s time (…) to give us an MLRS (multiple rocket launcher)? tweeted Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not confirm the possible shipment of such equipment, an expectation raised by the American press.

religious division

In the field of religion, the Moscow branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has severed ties with Russian spiritual authorities, which support Russian President Vladimir Putin – a historic step.

At the conclusion of a council, is pronounced the full independence and autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churchaccording to a press release, which specified that the relations of the Ukrainian Church with its leadership in Moscow are complicated or not from the beginning of the battle.

This initiative is the second Orthodox schism in Ukraine in several years. Part of the Ukrainian Church, represented by the kyiv Patriarchate, has already seceded from Moscow in 2019 due to the Kremlin’s intervention in the country.

Ukraine is the center of the Russian Orthodox Church, some of the most important monasteries are located in this country.