TE24 International Desk:
KYIV – Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the bomb-ravaged city of Rishihansk and urged Russia to claim full control of the eastern Luhansk region, an important objective of the Kremlin war, but President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for lost territory.
I promise to get it back. Ukraine said on Sunday that a strategic withdrawal would save the lives of soldiers. They will reorganize to launch counter-attacks with Western long-range weapons. However, Moscow said that seizing Lisichansk within less than a week of seizing neighboring Sevilla Donetsk meant “liberating” Luhansk.
It said it would give Luhansk a Russian-backed People’s Republic of Luhansk, a self-proclaimed independence on the eve of the war. The focus of the battlefield is now shifting to the adjacent Donetsk region. There, Kyiv still controls most of the territory.
“When our military commander pulls people from a certain point in the front row where the enemy’s firepower has the most advantage, it also applies to Lisichansk, which means only one thing.” Zelensky said in a video late Sunday night. “Thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons, thanks to our tactics, we will be back.”
Zelensky says Russia is concentrating its firepower on the Donbass front, but Ukraine will retaliate with US-supplied long-range weapons such as the HIMARS missile launcher. “We play an equally important role in protecting the lives of soldiers and people. We must rebuild the walls, restore the country and, above all, protect the people.”
Since abandoning the attack on the capital Kyiv, Russia has launched a military operation in the industrial centers of Donbass, including the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where Moscow-backed separatist agents have been fighting Ukraine since 2014. I paid attention.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has told President Vladimir Putin that Luhansk is “free.” Ukraine’s military headquarters said the army had been forced to withdraw from the city.
“Continuing the urban defense will have dire consequences. It has been decided to withdraw the Ukrainian guards to save lives,” he read in a social media statement.
Ukrainian officials, who described the mention of “liberation” of Ukrainian territory as Russian propaganda, reported heavy bombardment of residential areas. At least six people were killed in a powerful bombing by multiple rocket launchers in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Sunday, according to local officials.
Expensive campaign
Thousands of civilians have been killed and the city flattened since the Russian invasion on February 24. QU has accused Moscow of targeting civilians. Moscow denies it.
Russia says a “special military operation” has been called in Ukraine to protect Russian-speaking people from nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies have said it is a baseless excuse for violent attacks aimed at gaining territory.
Russia tried to portray their progress in Luhansk as an important moment in the war, but it was too costly for the Russian military, says London-based think tank RUSI Neil Melvin.
“Ukraine was not in a position to defend itself completely. They tried to delay the Russian attack and did the most damage while preparing for the counter-attack,” he said.
Kharkiv strike
Zelensky said Russia had “brutally” launched rocket attacks on Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, killing six and injuring 20 in Sloviansk alone. Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday it had struck a military infrastructure in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in northeastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops are building a fortress after a night bombing. Outside the school in Kharkiv, some residents threw the wreckage of a large hole caused by early morning rockets, while others helped repair a damaged house. “The woman was lucky to get up very early in the morning because the roof had collapsed where she was sleeping,” resident Alexei Mifflin told Reuters.
Russia, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Kharkiv on the Russian side of the border, also reported an explosion in Belgorod on Sunday, killing at least three people and destroying homes.
Belgorod residents told Reuters that “the sound was so strong that they jumped, woke up, got very scared and started screaming,” and the explosion occurred around 3pm (Greenwich Mean Time 0000). Added. Moscow has accused Kiev of numerous attacks in Belgorod and other areas adjacent to Ukraine. Kyiv has not claimed any liability in this case.
Injuries to military bases
Ukraine says its air force has fired about 15 rounds, destroying equipment and two ammunition depots “in almost all directions of hostility.” In the Russian-owned town of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops stormed a logistics base in more than 30 raids on Sunday, the city’s exiled mayor Ivan Fedorov said.
Russian officials have confirmed that the attack hit the city. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report. Ukraine has repeatedly called for accelerated arms shipments from the West, saying its troops
