Smoke rises in the city of Severiodonetsk during heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops. Photo: AFP
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https://scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3179815/ukraines-zelensky-concedes-russia-has-maximum-combat-power-donbas Europe
Ukraine’s Zelensky concedes Russia has ‘maximum combat power’ in Donbas
- Ukraine braces for large Russian attack on the eastern city of Slovyansk, the base of its forces in the Donbas region
- In a potential setback for Ukraine, US president not prepared to send rockets to Ukraine if they have range to strike Russia
An elderly woman walks away from a burning house garage after shelling in the city of Lysychansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Photo: AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that Russian forces now enjoyed “maximum combat power” in the Donbas region, as Ukraine’s general staff warned of fresh Russian offensives being prepared in the region.
A large-scale Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, the base of Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, was being readied, the Ukrainian general staff’s daily situation report said on Monday.
Russian units were reported to be moving into place from both the Russian-controlled city of Izyum, some 50km (31 miles) to the north, and the recently captured town of Lyman.
Moscow has been pouring its military resources into eastern Ukraine for weeks and, despite heavy resistance from Ukrainian forces, has been slowly gaining ground.
Slovyansk is the base for the Ukrainian armed forces in the country’s east and a Russian seizure of city would mark a significant turning point in the war.
According to the Ukrainian side, Russia has moved 250 military vehicles to the Izyum region and repaired a damaged rail bridge to strengthen supply lines.
In addition, the Ukrainian general staff said a squadron of Ka-52 attack helicopters had also been deployed north of Izyum. The Ka-52s are considered Russia’s most advanced heavy attack helicopters.
In addition to Slovyansk, the area between Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk continues to be the focus of Russian efforts in the Donbas, with Russian troops advancing towards the city centre of Sievierodonetsk.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk region, told Ukrainian state television on Tuesday that there were some 15,000 civilians left in Sievierodonetsk, as most of the city’s 120,000 people had fled the brutal bombardment by Russian artillery.
Preparing for the worst, Gaidai said Ukrainian troops defending Sievierodonetsk could retreat across the Siverskyi Donets river to Lysychansk to escape encirclement.
Sievierodonetsk has been the target of Russian attacks for months and is the largest city in the Donbas region still under Ukrainian control.
Russian forces meanwhile reported launching dozens of attacks on Ukrainian command centres and advance stations in the region, claiming the lives of multiple Ukrainian troops. The claims could not be independently verified, however.
Russian attacks continued elsewhere in Ukraine as well on Monday, particularly in the cities of Mykolayiv and Kherson. “The situation in the south is dynamic and tense,” read a Ukrainian military statement, noting that Russia was mustering reserves in an attempt to break through Ukrainian lines.
In the Donetsk region, three people were killed by Russian shelling, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko announced on Telegram, while in the Kharkiv region, a man died in Russian shelling, according to the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda.
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, two civilians were killed by Ukrainian shelling in both the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
As the balance of power continued to shift slowly in Russia’s favour, Ukraine once again pleaded for whatever military assistance it could get from the West.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna promised the delivery of additional French armaments during a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv on Monday. Kuleba praised the weapons received so far as “precise and efficient”, but said that Ukraine now needed even heavier weapons given the new Russian push.
02:30
Inside Kherson, the first Ukrainian city to fall under full Russian control
Promises of assistance were less solid out of the US, where President Joe Biden said that his country was not prepared to send rockets to Ukraine if they had a range sufficient to strike Russia, an attempt to thread the needle between a desire to help Ukraine and Russian allegations that Western support is actually aggression against Russia.
But opposition politicians said Biden’s new approach was another example of the president letting down Ukraine and being cowed by Russian threats.
Despite no signs of either side feeling ready to discuss peace, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again offered Istanbul as a setting for any such talks.
Speaking after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan said Russia was prepared to ease the blockade of grain exports from Ukrainian harbours and resume the export of fertiliser and agricultural products from its own ports, provided that Western sanctions were lifted.
Russia ended fertiliser exports and has more or less shut down Ukrainian agriculture exports amid the sanctions, causing havoc in global food supplies. However, Western powers have shown little readiness to end sanctions as long as Russia continues its invasion.
Even as recent battles seem to be turning Russia’s way, investigators are preparing to use allegations of human rights violations against civilians by Russian forces in occupied Ukrainian territory as a means of increasing pressure on Moscow.
A group of investigators and prosecutors from Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine was to present its findings to the European legal authority Eurojust on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by Reuters