Russia has taken control of a key city in eastern Ukraine, while the Russian foreign minister has accused the West of launching a “total war” once morest his country. As Kremlin troops shelled localities that for days were not attacked as Jarkov y Dniprothe pro-Russian separatists of Donetsk affirmed this Friday that they had conquered the town of Limanwhich opens the route to advance in the Donbass, an area where the fighting is currently concentrated.
The Battle of Liman
The conquest of the town would allow the Russian troops to clear the last obstacle to advance towards Slaviansk y Kramatorskin a maneuver to surround Severodonetsk y Lysychansk, further east. The head of the Ukrainian Military Unit for Donbass, Pavlo Kirilenko, recognized that the forces of his country that defended that population of some 23,000 inhabitants withdrew towards the south. “Most of Liman is not controlled by Ukrainian troops. The same goes for the Svitlodarsk line: the armed forces were redeployed to take fortified positions,” the regional military chief told local outlet Hromadske.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict, minute by minute
The Russian army is shelling Severodonetsk, whose governor warned it might suffer the same fate as Mariupol, a major southeastern port devastated following months of siege. “Nearly two-thirds of the perimeter of the city is occupied by the enemy, but it is not surrounded.” said the head of the city administration, Alexander Striuk. A Lugansk police official, quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, said instead that the city was “currently surrounded” and that Ukrainian troops might not leave.
At least five civilians have died in the last 24 hours in the region: four in Severodonetsk and one in Komychuvakha., 50 kilometers from there, Governor Serguei Gaidai said. In Dnipro, an industrial city in central-eastern Ukraine, an official announced this Friday “A dozen” dead and regarding 30 wounded in a Russian bombardment once morest a military field. More to the northin Kharkov, a bombing left nine dead and 19 wounded, including a five-month-old baby and his fathersaid the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
sanctions
In terms of sanctions, European leaders will hold a summit next Monday and Tuesday, which will include Zelenski’s participation by videoconference, where they will seek to advance with an agreement on an embargo on Russian oil. The measure has the rejection of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbanthe closest ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin within the European Union, who this Friday described as “erroneous and dangerous” the sanctions imposed on Moscow. Orban is categorically opposed to including the Russian oil embargo in the sanctions due to the economic impact it would have on the country.
The head of Russian diplomacy also spoke regarding these economic reprisals, Sergei Lavrovwhat denounced the West for launching a “total war” once morest his country. According to the chancellor, these measures are fueled by a “deeply false” propaganda in the global media space and one “unprecedented Russophobia”and estimated that this contest will last “a long time.”
Agricultural products
Meanwhile, Putin assured on Friday that the accusations once morest his country, which is blamed for the world’s problems in the supply of agricultural products, are “unfounded”. In a phone call with the Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, Putin “stressed that attempts to blame Russia for difficulties in supplying agricultural products on world markets are unfounded”, assured the Kremlin in a statement. “Detailed explanations were offered on the real causes of these problems, which arose from the anti-Russian sanctions,” the text added.
Putin also called on Ukraine to clear the ports “as soon as possible” to allow the passage of grain-carrying ships. Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted supplies of fertilizer, wheat and other staples to both countries, raising concerns of a global food crisis. Russia and the Ukraine produce 30 percent of the world’s wheat.
A on shift the Ukrainian president accused the Kremlin of committing “genocide” in that area in the east of the country, where the city of Severodonetsk is under constant bombardment. After failing to take kyiv and Kharkov, Moscow is focusing its efforts on completely conquering Donbass, a mining basin that includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, both of which are majority Russian-speaking, Zelensky said. Russia exercises “deportation” and “mass murders of civilians,” he insisted. “All this (…) is a clear policy of genocide,” he added in his daily television message.
