Sievierodonetsk, the small town that has become the center of Russia’s advance into eastern Ukraine and one of the bloodiest flashpoints in a war now in its fourth month, fierce new fighting have been reported.
The war in the east, where Russia is focusing its attention, is now primarily an artillery battle in which kyiv is severely outmatched, according to Ukrainian officials. This means that the course of events could be reversed only if Washington and other countries keep their promises to send more and better weapons, including rocket systems.
“It’s an artillery war now,” Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
“It all depends now on what (the West) gives us. Ukraine has one piece of artillery against 10 to 15 pieces of Russian artillery.”
Germany, which has been among the biggest arms suppliers since the Russian invasion but has been criticized for being slow to supply the heavy weaponry that kyiv says it needs, is considering revising its rules on exporting weapons. to facilitate the arming of democracies like Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.
CHOLERA
To the south, the mayor of Mariupol – reduced to rubble by a Russian siege – said sewage systems were broken and corpses rotted in the streets.
“There is an epidemic of dysentery and cholera,” Vadym Boichenko told national television. “The war which took away more than 20,000 inhabitants…unfortunately, with these epidemics of infection, will cause thousands more victims among the Mariupolites,” he said, adding that some wells had been contaminated with corpses.
Boichenko called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to establish a humanitarian corridor to allow the remaining residents to leave the town, which is now under Russian control.
In a look at the wider impact of the war, the UN food agency said reduced exports of wheat and other food staples from Ukraine and Russia could inflict hunger chronicles 19 million more people around the world over the next year.
IN THE RUINS
Russia hopes to seize the entire eastern province of Luhansk, which it demands that Ukraine cede to the separatists along with the neighboring province of Donetsk. The two provinces make up the Donbas region, where Moscow has been supporting a revolt by separatist proxies since 2014.
To this end, the Kremlin has concentrated its forces in a battle for Sievierodonetsk, which lies Luhansk.
Ukrainian troops have largely withdrawn from residential areas of the city, but have not yielded their footing on the eastern bank of the Siverskiy Donets river. Russian forces are also pushing north and south in an attempt to encircle the Ukrainians, but their progress is limited.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was trying to “break every town in Donbas”.
“Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut, Sloviansk, many, many others,” he said in his evening speech. “All these ruins were once happy cities”.
Both sides claim to have inflicted massive casualties. Reuters could not immediately verify reports from the battlefields.
Zelenskiy’s adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, estimated that the Russian army loses an average of five to six times more fighters than the Ukrainian side.
Asked in a social media interview whether this suggested that the Ukrainian army had lost up to 10,000 fighters in the first 100 days of the war, Arestovych replied: “Yes, something like that.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls his “special military operation” in Ukraine in February, saying his aim was to disarm and “denazify” neighboring Russia. kyiv and its allies call it a war of unprovoked aggression aimed at capturing territories.
On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped up Washington’s engagement in the region in light of Russia’s actions.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample on the rules that protect us all,” Austin told an Asian security forum in Singapore. “It’s a glimpse into a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”
Mr Zelenskiy is expected to deliver a virtual speech at the conference later today from 0800 GMT.