Russia told Ukrainian troops holed up in a chemical factory in the disputed city of Sievierodonetsk to lay down their weapons by early Wednesday, thus using its advantage in the battle for control of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine is calling for more Western heavy weapons after Russia deployed most of its firepower in the eastern Donbas region, a topic expected to feature prominently at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
Ukraine says more than 500 civilians are trapped alongside soldiers at the Azot chemical plant, where its forces have resisted for weeks Russian bombings and attacks that have reduced much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins.
Fighters must “stop their senseless resistance and lay down their arms” from 8 a.m. Moscow time (0500 GMT), Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center told Interfax news agency.
Civilians would be let out through a humanitarian corridor, Mizintsev said.
The Azot bombing echoes the earlier siege of the Azovstal steel mill in the southern port of Mariupol, where hundreds of fighters and civilians sheltered from Russian shelling. Those inside surrendered in mid-May and were taken into Russian custody.
The shelling on Azot was so heavy that “people can no longer stand it in the shelters, their psychological state is on edge,” said regional governor Serhiy Gaidai of Luhansk, one of the two eastern provinces that Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
The Russian attack on Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk – a city of just 100,000 inhabitants before the war – is currently the focal point of what is called the Battle of the Donbas.
Kiev has said 100-200 of its soldiers are killed every day, with hundreds more injured.
Ukraine is still trying to evacuate civilians from Sievierodonetsk after Russian forces destroyed the last bridge over a river to its Ukrainian-occupied sister city Lysychansk.
Russian troops shelled Lysychansk, which is higher up on the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets River.
Land has changed hands several times in recent weeks and Ukrainian officials have made little indication that they will withdraw.
But now that all bridges from Sievierodonetsk have been destroyed, Ukrainian forces are at risk of being surrounded.
“We must stay strong… The more losses the enemy suffers, (the) less strength he will have to continue his aggression,” Zelenskiy said in a speech late Tuesday.
‘Can’t leave’
Russia doesn’t give firm figures on its own losses, but Western countries say they have been huge as President Vladimir Putin wants to force Kiev to relinquish complete control of two provinces, Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas.
Momentum in Sievierodonetsk has shifted several times in recent weeks — with Russia concentrating its overwhelming artillery firepower on urban districts to wipe out resistance, then sending ground troops vulnerable to counter-attacks.
Elsewhere in the Donbas, Ukraine says Russia plans to attack Sloviansk from the north and along a front near Bakhmut to the south.
In Donetsk province, critical infrastructure, including homes, schools, hospitals and markets, has been attacked in the past week, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
“This has made life almost unbearable for people who also face severe water shortages and are sometimes unable to leave their homes for days due to the fighting,” Dujarric said.
In the south, the Ukrainian army said it had launched three airstrikes against troop concentrations, fuel depots and military equipment in the Kherson region.
weapons
Ukrainian officials have again urged the United States and its allies to send more and better artillery, tanks, drones and other heavy weapons.
Western countries have promised NATO-standard weapons – including advanced US missiles. But deploying them takes time, and Ukraine will need consistent Western support to switch to new stockpiles and weapons systems as stockpiles of their Soviet-era weapons and ammunition dwindle.
Wednesday’s meeting on the margins of a NATO defense ministry is led by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. It is the third time that the group of nearly 50 countries has gathered to discuss and coordinate aid to Ukraine.
Washington has pledged about $4.6 billion in security assistance since the Russian invasion of February 24, including longer-range missile systems, drones and advanced artillery.
But Zelenskiy said Ukraine does not have enough anti-missile defense systems to protect its cities, adding that “there is no justification for delays in providing them.”
While Western sanctions have hit the Russian economy hard, the resulting global shortages of oil and grain have sent energy and commodity prices soaring. And a speech Putin will give Friday at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum will be closely watched.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
