After putting an end to weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic city of Mariupol, in the south-east of the country, Russia is leading what appears to be a major offensive in Luhansk, one of the two provinces of Donbas.
The Russian-backed separatists already controlled swaths of territory in Luhansk and the neighboring province of Donetsk before the February 24 invasion, but Moscow wants to seize the last territory still held by the Ukrainians in the Donbas.
An end to the fighting Mariupol, the biggest city Russia has captured so far, could be crucial to that ambition and hand Russian President Vladimir Putin a rare victory after a series of setbacks in nearly three months of fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told local television that while the fighting would be bloody and victory difficult, the end would only come through diplomacy.
“For them, all these victories – the occupation of Crime or Donbas – are very temporary. And all this will come back – since this is our territory,” he said on Saturday.
Full control of Mariupol could give Russia control of a land route linking the Crime Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014, mainland Russia and areas of eastern Ukraine held by pro-separatists. -Russians.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a social media post early Saturday that Russia was trying to destroy the city of Sievierodonetsk, with fighting taking place on the outskirts of the city.
“The shelling continues from morning until evening and also throughout the night,” Gaidai said in a video message posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Although they have lost ground elsewhere in recent weeks, Russian forces have made progress on the Luhansk front.
Sievierodonetsk and its twin Lysychansk, across the Siverskiy Donets River, form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held pocket that Russia has been trying to invade since mid-April after failing to take kyiv.
GAS DISPUTE
Russia’s national gas company, Gazprom, said it had halted gas exports to Finland after the latter refused to accede to Russian demands to pay for Russian gas in rubles due to Western sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine.
Finland and Sweden this week applied to join the NATO military alliance, a move spurred by the war in Ukraine.
Finland’s state-owned gas wholesaler Gasum, the Finnish government and individual gas-consuming companies in Finland have said they are prepared for a stoppage of Russian flows and the country will manage without it.
Most European supply contracts are denominated in euros or dollars and Moscow cut off gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month after they refused to comply with new payment terms.
In addition to trying to isolate Russia through sanctions, Western nations have stepped up arms shipments to Ukraine.
Kyiv received another huge boost on Saturday when US President Joe Biden signed a bill to provide nearly $40 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid to the country.
“Expect new and powerful defense aid. It is needed now more than ever,” Zelenskiy tweeted.
Moscow says Western arms deliveries to kyiv and the imposition of sanctions amount to a “proxy war” by the United States and its allies.
The Russian military said it destroyed a large shipment of Western weapons in the Ukrainian region of Zhytomyr, west of kyiv, using Kalibr cruise missiles launched at sea. Reuters could not verify this report. independently.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has become the latest Western leader to visit kyiv and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said he had signed an agreement for unspecified financial support.
Putin says Russian troops are engaged in a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid it of radical anti-Russian nationalists. Western countries call it a war of unprovoked aggression.
Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine and urban areas have been destroyed by war. Nearly a third of Ukraine’s population has fled their homes, including more than 6 million who have left the country.
END OF THE SIEGE OF AZOVSTAL
The last Ukrainian forces entrenched in the huge Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol surrendered on Friday, said the Russian Defense Minister. He said 2,439 defenders had surrendered in the past few days, including 531 in the last group.
Earlier, Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian military told the last defenders they could get out and save their lives. The Ukrainians did not immediately confirm the figures for Azovstal.
It is unclear what will become of the fighters.
The Red Cross says it has registered hundreds of Ukrainians who surrendered at the Azovstal factory as prisoners of war and kyiv says it wants an exchange of prisoners. Moscow says the prisoners will be treated humanely, but Russian politicians have been quoted as saying some must be tried or even executed.