In the heart of Severodonetsk, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, there is “street fighting” as Russian forces exert their full weight to control Donbas, while kyiv was hit by “several explosions” on Sunday morning. This is the strongest attack that kyiv has suffered for several weeks
“Several explosions in the Darnytsky and Dniprovsky districts of the city. Services are dying out,” the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram.
The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschlo, and the Ukrainian General Staff reported strong explosions in and around the Ukrainian capital, where one person was injured.
The affected neighborhoods have been Danrnyza and Dnpro, in the west of kyiv. According to Klitschko, an injured person had to be transferred to a hospital but there have been no deaths. Rescue services have moved to the affected places.
The town of Browary, on the outskirts of kyiv, has also been affected by missile attacks, but the extent of the damage caused is still unclear.
Meanwhile, at least 11 civilians were reported dead in the Luhansk region, where Severodonetsk is located, the nearby Donetsk region and the southern city of Mykolaiv.
“The situation in Severodonetsk, where street fighting continues, remains extremely difficult,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said in a video posted early Sunday morning, deploring “air strikes, artillery and constant fire from missiles”.
The city remains at the center of the Russian offensive in the Donbas mining basin, an eastern region under partial control of pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and which Moscow hopes to conquer in its entirety.
The situation there remains unclear. Local Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday that the defense was retaking part of the city, while Moscow said the Ukrainians had suffered heavy losses and were in retreat.
“Ukrainian army units, which suffered critical losses during the fighting for Severodonetsk (up to 90% in several units), are falling back towards Lyssytchansk,” a nearby town, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
But kyiv says it is fighting to recapture the city. Russian troops “managed to enter and seize a good part of the city, dividing it in two. But our soldiers managed to redeploy, build a line of defense. Currently, we are doing everything necessary to restore full control” of Severodonetsk, declared its mayor. Olexandre Striouk.
A little earlier, the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai, also assured that “initial information indicates that they (the Russians) have managed to take control of most of the city. But our forces are now repelling them.” .
The Russians “are blowing up the bridges so that we can’t send reinforcements to our guys, who are in Severodonetsk,” the governor added.
For its part, Moscow claims to have destroyed two Ukrainian command centers and six ammunition depots in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
The fight continues on other fronts as well. According to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, “Russia continues to strive to occupy our entire state.” The Kremlin dreams of “gathering the lands” it considers “its own”, including “Poland, the Baltic countries, Slovakia and others,” Oleksi Reznikov said.
Crimea, Donbas, southern Ukraine: Since the beginning of the invasion, Russia has tripled the Ukrainian area under its control, to some 125,000 km², or 20% of the country, according to Zelensky.
On the southern front, in the Kherson region, Moscow “continues to bombard the occupied territories and the positions of the Ukrainian army,” announced the Ukrainian presidency, which fears a humanitarian crisis in the areas in Russian hands.
The Russian army claims to have destroyed “a deployment point for foreign mercenaries” near Dachnoe, in the Odessa region, and to have hit a Ukrainian artillery training center near Stetskovka, in the Sumy region (north), with missiles. where “foreign instructors trained Ukrainian soldiers in the use of the M777 howitzer”.
The port of Mykolaiv was also hit by a missile, as was an agricultural enterprise in the large port of Odessa, where “warehouses were damaged” and two people were killed, according to kyiv.
The war continues to weigh on grain exports, on which African countries in particular depend.
After his meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Senegalese head of state and current president of the African Union, Macky Sall, announced on Saturday his intention to visit Ukraine and “contribute to the return of peace.”
For his part, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister responded on Saturday to French President Emmanuel Macron, who had reiterated that it was not necessary to “humiliate Russia” in order to preserve the diplomatic exit doors.
“We would all do better to focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives,” Dmitro Kouleba replied, adding that Macron’s position can only “humiliate France.”
At the same time, the USS Kearsarge was anchoring in Stockholm, being the largest American warship in the port of the Swedish capital.
“It is important for us, both for the United States and the rest of the NATO countries, to show our solidarity with Finland and Sweden with this military exercise,” said the chief of the American general staff, General Mark Milley, referring to the maneuvers of the NATO in the Baltic Sea.
These maneuvers, which take place between June 5 and 17 with the participation of 14 countries, took on greater relevance after the outbreak of the war in Eastern Europe.
On Sunday night, in Cardiff, the Ukrainians will try to clinch another victory, with which they would qualify for the World Cup.
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