(Kyiv) The Ukrainian authorities reported on Saturday “fierce battles” in the villages near the town of Sievierodonetsk (east), which Russian troops have been trying to take control for weeks.
Posted at 7:19
“Now the fiercest battles are taking place near Sievierodonetsk. They [les Russes] do not fully control the city,” the governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Sergey Gaidai, said on Telegram.
“In the neighboring villages, the fighting is very difficult – in Toshkivska, Zolote. They try to break through, but fail,” he said.
“Our defenders are fighting the Russians in all directions. Recently they shot down a plane and took prisoners,” he said.
Sergey Gaidai also said that Lysychansk – a Ukrainian-controlled city separated from Sievierodonetsk by a river – is “heavily shelled”.
“They can’t get near it and that’s why they just shoot the town with airstrikes,” he said. The situation is “very dangerous in the city”.
Serguiï Gaïdaï reported “more destruction” at the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians are refugees.
On Friday, he said that 568 people, including 38 children, were hiding in the factory and that only a “complete ceasefire” would allow them to be evacuated.
The UN said on Friday that access to drinking water, food, sanitation and electricity was declining in Sievierodonetsk. She described the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine as “extremely alarming”.
President Zelensky visits the South
photo from the facebook page of president volodymyr zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose trips outside the capital Kyiv have been rare since the start of the Russian invasion, paid his first visit to the town of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Saturday.
A video, released by the Ukrainian presidency, shows him inspecting a badly damaged residential building and holding meetings with local officials.
Mykolaiv, a port and industrial city of almost half a million inhabitants before the war, is still under Ukrainian control, but it is close to the Kherson region, occupied by the Russians. It remains a target of Moscow, as it lies on the route to Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, 130 km to the southwest.
World in danger of famine, warns EU
Russia is putting the world at risk of starvation with the blocking of grain exports from Ukraine and restrictions on its own exports, the head of European diplomacy, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, accused on Saturday.
Threats to food security and the “battle of narratives” with Russia over the reality of the sanctions imposed on Moscow will be at the center of discussions by EU foreign ministers on Monday in Luxembourg.
“We are ready to work with the UN to prevent any undesirable impact of our sanctions on global food security”, assures Josep Borrell in an article published on his official blog.
The head of European diplomacy denounces “Russia’s conscious political choice to ‘militarize’ grain exports and use them as a tool of blackmail against anyone who opposes its aggression” in Ukraine.
“Russia has turned the Black Sea into a war zone, blocking grain and fertilizer shipments from Ukraine […] and also applies quotas and taxes on its own grain exports,” he points out.
The sanctions imposed by the European Union “do not prohibit Russia from exporting agricultural products and seeds, nor from buying them, provided that the persons or entities sanctioned are not involved” in these operations, specifies the head of European diplomacy.
“We are fully aware that there is a ‘battle of stories’ around this issue” of sanctions, he acknowledges.
“It is imperative to allow the resumption of Ukrainian exports by ship. We are working closely with the UN and hope that a solution can be found in the next few days. Failure to do so risks causing a global food catastrophe,” he warns.