Sergiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk province, told state television that Ukrainian troops had recaptured 20% of the territory they had lost in Sievierodonetsk.
It was “unrealistic” for the city to fall within the next two weeks, even though Russian reinforcements were being deployed, he said on Friday.
“As soon as we have enough Western long-range weapons, we will push their artillery away from our positions. And then, believe me, the Russian infantry, they will just run,” Gaidai said. Reuters could not immediately verify its assertion regarding the Ukrainian advances.
The war that Western governments thought Russia stood to win hours after its February invasion entered its 100th day on Friday. Thousands of people have died, millions have been uprooted from their homes and the global economy has been disrupted since forces in Moscow were pushed back from kyiv in the early months of the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denied that Moscow was preventing Ukrainian ports from exporting grain, blaming the West for rising world food prices.
“We are currently witnessing attempts to blame Russia for what is happening in the world food market, for emerging problems in this market,” he said on national television.
According to him, the best solution would be for the Western sanctions against Belarus, an ally of Russia, to be lifted and for the Ukraine to be able to export cereals via this country.
Ukrainian officials are counting on the advanced missile systems that the United States and Britain have recently pledged to swing the war in their favor, and Ukrainian troops have already begun training on these systems.
Although Ukrainian resistance has forced Putin to scale back his immediate goal of conquering the entire Donbas region, Ukrainian officials have said he remains determined to subjugate the whole country.
“Putin’s main goal is the destruction of Ukraine. He does not back down from his goals, despite the fact that Ukraine won the first stage of this full-scale war,” state television told Vice on Friday. -Ukrainian Defense Minister Hanna Malyar.
Moscow has poured troops and material into the Battle of Sievierodonetsk, which Russia must invade to capture Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the eastern region of Donbas which the Kremlin has said it wants to capture.
Reuters reached Sievierodonetsk on Thursday and was able to verify that the Ukrainians were still holding part of the town.
Separately, two Reuters journalists were injured and a driver killed on Friday after their vehicle came under fire as they attempted to reach Sievierodonetsk from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Russian soldiers tried to advance towards Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi Donetsk river from Sievierodonetsk, but were stopped, the Ukrainian military headquarters said.
In neighboring Donetsk province, Russian troops were only 15 km (9 miles) from the city of Sloviansk, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Reuters.
Donetsk will not fall quickly, but needs more weapons to hold off attackers, Kyrylenko said.
MOSCOW SAYS NOT TO BE DISCOURAGED BY WESTERN GUNS
Moscow says Western weapons will “add fuel to the flames” but will not change the course of what it calls a “special military operation” aimed at disarming Ukraine and ridding it of dangerous nationalists.
Russia still controls about a fifth of the country, about half of which was seized in 2014 and the other half captured since launching its invasion on February 24.
For both sides, Russia’s massive assault in the east in recent weeks has been one of the deadliest phases of the war, with Ukraine claiming to lose 60,100 troops every day.
Moscow made slow but steady progress, compressing Ukrainian forces into a pocket in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, but failing to encircle them.
kyiv, meanwhile, hopes the Russian advance will drain Moscow’s forces enough for Ukraine to reclaim territory in the coming months.
The war had a devastating impact on the global economy, especially for poor food-importing countries. Ukraine is one of the world’s main sources of grain and cooking oil, but those supplies have been cut off by the closure of its Black Sea ports, with more than 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in silos .
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths on Friday ended two days of “frank and constructive talks” with Russian officials in Moscow on facilitating Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports, an official said. UN spokesperson.
The talks have come as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attempts to negotiate what he calls a “comprehensive deal” for the resumption of Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports.
kyiv and its allies accuse Moscow of having blocked the ports, which Ukraine mined to prevent a Russian amphibious assault. Putin blamed Western sanctions.