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Russia ‘suffering huge losses’ after Ukraine recaptures chunk of Sievierodonetsk, says governor
Ukraine now controls around half of the key eastern city of Sievierodonetsk after recapturing 20% of the territory they had lost to Russian forces, according to the head of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai.
Russia had “previously managed to capture most of the city”, he said, “but now our military has pushed them back. They are really suffering huge losses”.
Speaking on national television, Haidai said:
They are moving forward step-by-step. They are simply destroying everything with artillery, aircraft, mortars, tanks.
But as soon as we have enough Western long-range weapons, we will push their artillery away from our positions. And then, believe me, the Russian infantry, they will just run.
The situation in the region as a whole remained “difficult”, with Sievierodonetsk “now just a concentration of hostilities” because the Russian army “is throwing all its reserves into this direction”, Haidai said.
It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.
A former KGB agent who was accused of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London has died of Covid-19, according to reports.
Dmitry Kovtun, one of two Russian men accused by Britain of carrying out the poisoning in 2006, died in a Moscow hospital, according to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
Litvinenko, a British citizen and former KGB officer who had become an outspoken opponent of Vladimir Putin, died weeks after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 at London’s Millennium Hotel, where he met Kovtun and the other suspect, Andrei Lugovoy.
Investigators found traces of polonium at sites across London where the two men had been, including in offices, hotels, planes and the Arsenal soccer stadium.
From his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his killing, but the Kremlin has always denied any role. Kovtun and Lugovoy denied carrying out the poisoning, and Russia refused to extradite them to face trial.
Lugovoy, who is now a prominent member of Russia’s parliament, was quoted by Tass as saying he was mourning the death of a “close and faithful friend”
Russian forces are blowing up bridges across the Seversky Donets river to prevent Ukraine from bringing in military reinforcements and delivering aid to civilians in Sievierodonetsk, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai.
Haidai said the Ukrainian military continued to hold its positions inside the key eastern city and was pushing back Russian forces in several locations, Reuters reports.
The world faces a critical food shortage unless Russia lifts its blockade on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, has warned.
Ukraine and its allies are seeking ways to get some 22m tonnes of grain out of the country after Russia captured much of its southern coastline. The Russian navy now controls major transport routes in the Black Sea, blocking Ukrainian shipments and threatening tens of millions of people who rely on Ukraine’s cereals.
Efforts to improve other transport options in order to get its grains out by road, river and rail would be insufficient to enable Ukraine to deliver a fraction of its total grain stockpile, Kubrakov told the Financial Times.
Kubrakov said:
All of our activity won’t cover even 20% of what we could do through the Black Sea ports.
He added:
Everyone is doing superhuman activity, and the [amount exported] is growing every month . . . in the short term it could go up to 30% [of Ukraine’s Black Sea exporting capacity].
Russia’s blockade risked creating famine “on a global scale”, Kubrakov said, accusing Moscow of acting like “total pirates”.
Kubrakov said:
They don’t care about the lives of these people in Africa. They’re telling them: ‘We don’t care about you. We are only worried about sanctions against us. Now you are hostages.’
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, yesterday denied Moscow was preventing Ukrainian ports from exporting grain, calling reports of a Russian export ban a “bluff” from western nations.
Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, said Kyiv wants to strengthen its positions on the ground with the help of new weapons deliveries from the west before it resumes peace talks with Russia.
Speaking on national television yesterday, Arakhamia said:
Our armed forces are ready to use (the new weapons)…and then I think we can initiate a new round of talks from a strengthened position.
A quick snap from Reuters, also from Odesa in southern Ukraine. Russia’s defence ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane carrying weapons and munitions near the Black Sea port.
Russian missiles also struck an artillery training centre in Ukraine’s Sumy region where foreign instructors worked, the ministry said.
It also claimed another missile strike destroyed a “foreign mercenaries’” outpost in the Odesa region.
It has not been possible to independently verify these claims.
A Russian missile struck an agricultural building in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa this morning, wounding two people, according to a local official.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa regional military administration, said on Telegram:
The morning in Odesa began with a missile strike. Strategic aviation aircraft of the Russian Federation launched a cruise missile attack on one of the districts of the Odesa region. A Ha-59 type missile hit an agricultural enterprise. According to preliminary information, two people were injured.
A team is investigating the incident and rescuers have put out the resulting fire, he added.
He also noted that several ships carrying cruise missiles continued to be in the Black Sea, adding that Russian forces were trying to strengthen their foothold on Snake Island.
Russia ‘suffering huge losses’ after Ukraine recaptures chunk of Sievierodonetsk, says governor
Ukraine now controls around half of the key eastern city of Sievierodonetsk after recapturing 20% of the territory they had lost to Russian forces, according to the head of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai.
Russia had “previously managed to capture most of the city”, he said, “but now our military has pushed them back. They are really suffering huge losses”.
Speaking on national television, Haidai said:
They are moving forward step-by-step. They are simply destroying everything with artillery, aircraft, mortars, tanks.
But as soon as we have enough Western long-range weapons, we will push their artillery away from our positions. And then, believe me, the Russian infantry, they will just run.
The situation in the region as a whole remained “difficult”, with Sievierodonetsk “now just a concentration of hostilities” because the Russian army “is throwing all its reserves into this direction”, Haidai said.
It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.
Dan Sabbagh
Our Dan Sabbagh is in the Ukrainian capital where he has shared images of Russian wreckage displayed for the public, “safe now for children to play on, and for adults to peer at”.
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