Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces raided Ukraine’s last stronghold in Ukraine’s separatist -controlled eastern province on Friday, including a city where authorities say 1,500 people have been killed and 60% killed. residential buildings were initially destroyed. war.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister warned that without a new injection of foreign weapons, Ukrainian forces would not be able to prevent Russia from seizing Siyevierodonetsk and nearby Lisichansk areas, which are crucial to Russia’s goal of seizing the Donbass industrial region in Ukraine.
The cities are the last districts under Ukrainian control in Lugansk, one of the two provinces that make up the region. Russian forces made it Slow but steady progress Because they bombed and tried to besiege Lisichansky and Sievierdonetsky.
“Russians are mercilessly attacking residential areas,” regional governor Serhi Haidai wrote in a Telegram post on Friday. “Residents of Sivierododetsk have forgotten when there was the last silence in the city for half an hour”.
Four people have been killed in Russia’s bombing of the city in the past 24 hours.
Mayor Alexander Stryuk said on Thursday that at least 1,500 people had been killed in Sievierdonetsk since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. About 12,000-13,000 remain in the city, up from 100,000 before the war and 60% of the population. . He said the buildings were demolished.
Struk said a Russian intelligence and sabotage group entered the city hotel and the main road between nearby Lisichansk and the city of Bakhmut remained open to the southwest, but travel was dangerous. He said only 12 people were evacuated on Thursday.
In Donetsk, another province in the Donbas region, Russian -backed rebels said on Friday they had taken control of Liman, a major railway hub north of two other major cities that remain under Ukrainian control. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian officials.
As Ukraine’s hopes of stopping Russia’s advance fade, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba called on Western countries to provide more weapons to his country to equip its defenders to “withdraw Russia’s forces” .
“We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us is the number of heavy weapons. “Without artillery, without more missile systems, we can’t repel them,” Kuleb said in a video posted on Twitter Thursday night.
He said the situation in the East was “worse than they say.” If you really care about Ukraine, arms, arms and arms again “.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has spoken harshly to the country for not accepting a sixth round of sanctions, including an embargo on Russia’s oil.
“Of course, I thank our friends for their support of the new sanctions,” he said. “But who intercepted the sixth pack from which he got so much power? Why do they have so much power, even in intra-European approaches?
Zelensky also spoke directly about the stakes in the struggle for eastern Ukraine.
“The pressure on Russia is literally a matter of saving lives,” he said. “And every day the aggressor” calms down “every day at the expense of delays, vulnerabilities, various disputes or victims, new Ukrainians are killed. And new threats for everyone on our continent”.
Moscow forced the West on Thursday to lift sanctions already imposed on the war, seeking to shift the blame. The growing food crisis in the world exacerbated by Kiev’s inability to send millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products during the attack.
Britain immediately accused Russia of “trying to redeem the world” and insisted that there was no mitigation of sanctions. And a US diplomat criticized the invasion for “sheer barbarism, sadistic cruelty and lawlessness”.
Reported by Becatoros from Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Andres Rosa traveled to Kharkov, Ukraine, and Lolita Baldur in Washington.
Source: Huffpost
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