Ukraine: Russian attacks repelled in the east according to kyiv

Our units repelled the assault in the Toshkivka areathe Ukrainian military said on Facebook. The enemy has retreated and is regrouping.

The local governor, Serguiï Gaïdaï, described as lies the idea that the Russians controlled the strategic locality of Severodonetsk. Indeed, they control the majority of the city, but they do not control it entirelyhe said on Telegram.

The conflict could last a long time

While Ukraine displays its determination to fight until the end, the Secretary General of theNATOJens Stoltenberg, warned that Western countries must be ready to offer long-term support to kyiv during a bitter war.

The war could last yearshe warned in an interview published Sunday by the German daily Bild, urging Western countries to register their support for kyiv in the long term.

” We must not falter in supporting Ukraine, even though the costs are high, not only in terms of military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices. “

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a similar warning, calling for strong support for kyiv or risk seeing theassault triumph in Europe as never since the Second World War.

The countries supporting Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion must keep their cool and ensure that kyiv will have the strategic stamina to survive and ultimately winhe writes in a column published by the Sunday Times.

Russian forces have been concentrating their firepower on eastern and southern Ukraine in recent weeks since their failed attempt to take the capital kyiv after a February 24 lightning invasion.

The losses are significant. Many houses have been destroyed, civil logistics have been disrupted, there are many social problems, said Volodymir Zelensky who visited the southern front. He assured Sunday that his troops had maintained morale.

During this rare visit outside kyiv, where he barricaded himself at the start of the conflict when the capital was threatened by the Russian army, President Zelensky traveled to the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, visiting the troops stationed near and in the neighboring region of Odessa.

We will not give the South to anyone, we will take everything back, and the sea will be Ukrainian, it will be safehe said in a video posted on Telegram as he returned to Kyiv.

He said he spoke with soldiers and police during his visit. Their mood is confident, and looking into their eyes, it’s obvious that no one doubts our victory.did he declare.

Determined despite losses

However, Mr. Zelensky acknowledged that the losses are significant. Many houses have been destroyed, civil logistics have been disrupted, there are many social problems.

I asked that assistance be put in place for people who have lost loved ones more generally. We will definitely rebuild everything that was destroyedhe added.

” Russia does not have as many missiles as our people want to live. “

Mr. Zelensky thanked the soldiers, who are containing the thrust of Russian troops, supported in the east from annexed Crimea, for their heroic service.

It is important that you are alive. As long as you are alive, there is a solid Ukrainian wall protecting our country.he told them.

A video, released by the presidency, showed him in Mykolaiv with the local governor, Vitaliy Kim, in front of the gaping facade of the headquarters of the regional administration, hit by a Russian strike in March which left 37 dead.

This port and industrial city of almost half a million inhabitants before the war is still under Ukrainian control, but it is close to the Kherson region, almost entirely occupied by the Russians. A Russian strike killed two people and injured 20 on Friday.

It remains a target of Moscow, as it lies on the road to Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, 130 km to the south-west near Moldova, also still under Ukrainian control and at the center of discussions on blocked export of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain.

Russia, which controls this area of ​​the Black Sea despite the firing of Ukrainian missiles against its ships, explains that the waters are mined.

Blocked by Russia, the inhabitants of Odessa try to participate in the war effort as best they can. Every day, including the weekend, I come to make camouflage nets for the armysays Natalia Pinchenkova, 49 years old.

In Mykolaiv, Ukrainian soldiers are struggling to maintain their pre-war routines, with one saying he won’t give up his vegan diet while on the front line.

Oleksandr Zhuhan said he received a package from a network of volunteers to maintain his diet. There was pâté and vegan sausages, hummus, soy milk […] and all this for freerejoiced the 37-year-old theater teacher.

In kyiv, thousands of people gathered on Saturday to pay tribute to Roman Ratushny, 24, a figure of the pro-European Maidan movement in Ukraine, killed fighting the Russians in the east of the country.

In front of his coffin draped in a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag at the foot of a monument overlooking the sprawling Independence Square in the capital, people of all ages saluted his memory.

I think it is important to be there because he is a hero of Ukraine and we must remember himtold theAFP Dmytro Ostrovsky, a 17-year-old high school student.

This loss puts a human face on the grief shared by Ukrainians, as the bloodshed continues in the country.

Fierce fighting in the Donbass

Fierce fighting is raging in particular near Severodonetsk, in the Donbass region (east), partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and which Russia, after failing to take kyiv in the first weeks of its offensive, has set itself aim to take full control.

An expression says: we must prepare for the worst and the best will come by itselfsaid Saturday in an interview with theAFP Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the Lugansk region, which notably houses the cities of Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk.

Of course we have to prepareadded the one who has repeatedly warned that the Russians would end up encircling Lyssytchansk by cutting off its main supply routes.

In Lysychansk the situation is difficult, in the city and in the whole regionunderlined Serguiï Gaïdaï, because the Russians bombard our positions 24 hours a day.

Mr. Gaïdaï added that to see his hometown, Severodonetsk, being bombed and people he knows dying is sore.

I’m human, but I bury it deep insidehe said, adding that his task was to help people as much as possible.