Russia-Ukraine war: Russian

2022 - 6 - 1

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 98 of the invasion (The Guardian)

Sievierodonetsk mostly under Russian control; Russia further cuts gas supplies to Europe; seed bank in Kharkiv at risk.

Oleg Morozov from the United Russia party said on Rossiya-1 state TV he had a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister would travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continued. Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said that Russia now controls 70% of the city of Sievierodonetsk, which is the main crucible of Russia’s attack at the present time, and a key objective if Russian forces are to control the whole of the Donbas region. The UK’s ministry of defence latest assessment of the situation on the ground in Ukraine says: “Russian ground operations remain tightly focused, with the weight of fire power concentrated within a small sector of Luhansk oblast. Russia has said that a US decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions toUkrainewas extremely negative and would increase the risk of a direct confrontation. US PresidentJoe Bidenhas confirmed he will send the more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Kyiv, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been asking for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 98 (Aljazeera.com)

Get the latest updates here. Fighting. The United States will send Ukraine the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), equipped with munitions that ...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia’s bombing of Severodonetsk “madness” due to the number of chemical plants in the city. - German companies Uniper and RWE paid for Russian gas under a new scheme proposed by Moscow, in a bid to ensure continued supply of the fuel that is critical to Europe’s top economy. - Russia’s economy will not suffer from the EU’s oil embargo due to new markets and rising fuel prices, the chairwoman of Russia’s Federation Council said. - Pope Francis led an international prayer service in Rome for peace in Ukraine and other places stricken by war – an event attended by about a thousand people, including the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican and a number of people wearing the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag. - Moscow’s focus on seizing Severodonetsk and the Donbas region more generally risks its hold on Kherson, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said. - Ukrainian forces have had some success near the southern city of Kherson and are advancing in parts of the Kharkiv region, Zelenskyy said.

Live updates: Russia's war in Ukraine (CNN International)

Russian forces are closing in on the eastern city of Severodonetsk, with a regional military administration official saying troops have now taken control of ...

CNN previously reported that US officials were debating for weeks whether to send Ukraine the advanced rocket systems, because they can strike so much further than any weapons they already have. The M777 Howitzers the US sent to Ukraine last month, for example, marked a significant increase in range and power over previous systems, but even those top out at around 25 kilometers (18 miles) in range. The officials also said the new rocket systems will help put Ukraine “in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table” with Russia, and reiterated that the US will “not pressure the Ukrainian government in public or in private to make any territorial concessions.”

Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Russia slams Biden's pledge of ... (The Washington Post)

The advanced rocket systems will mean that Ukraine “can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table,” Biden ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. On Wednesday morning, he wrote in a Telegram post that Russian troops have consolidated in the city center, pushing in from the north, south and east. Oleksandr Petrakov, the team’s 64-year-old coach, was turned away when he tried to enlist. Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Russia does not trust Ukraine’s assurances that U.S.-supplied HIMARS weapons would not be used to strike Russian territory. I make a heartfelt appeal that every effort be made to guarantee the universal human right to food. Unfortunately, there is no such experience at all,” Peskov told reporters when asked to comment on Zelensky’s remarks. “June 1st is International Day for the Protection of Children in Ukraine and across the region,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in the release. “Today, a simplified procedure for the people willing to adopt a child using the Diia portal has become operational,” Koshelenko said. Kyiv would also be supplied with a tracking radar to spot artillery, he said. The truck was about to pick up refugees near the embattled Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk. Blinken and Stoltenberg characterized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade as a strategic failure. It’s fully within its power to do so.”

Russians March On Severodonetsk As Ukraine Awaits New US ... (NDTV)

Russian forces edged closer Wednesday to taking the key eastern Ukraine city of Severodonetsk but Kyiv's hopes of holding off their invaders were boosted by ...

"These days it is very important for the country, for all people, for all those who are fans and even for those who are not." But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was up to the West and Kyiv to resolve the crisis, starting with the lifting of sanctions. Moscow said a "reorientation" was under way to find alternative destinations for its oil, as it moved to "minimise the negative consequences". "There are some river crossings that need to be completed after the closure of the (Ukraine-controlled) pocket and we've seen previously how difficult those river crossings are." In a boost for the outgunned Ukrainian military, President Joe Biden confirmed that more US weaponry was on the way to allow them to "more precisely strike key targets" in Ukraine. A key industrial hub and with Lysychansk the last pocket of resistence in the eastern Lugansk region, Severodonetsk has become a target of massive Russian firepower since the failed attempt to capture Kyiv.

Russia-Ukraine war: Russian forces advance in factory city, US to ... (DNA India)

Russian troops on Wednesday pressed their assault on a factory city targeted in their push to grab a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the United States said ...

He said Lysychansk was easier to defend because it is located on a hill but that Russian forces would target it with artillery and mortars once in full control of Sievierodonetsk. The EU said it would ban imports of Russian oil by sea. Russia denies the accusations. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces continued to pound northern, southern and eastern districts of Sievierodonetsk, in Luhansk, one of two provinces in the eastern Donbas region that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists. Russian forces now control about 70% of the city, said regional governor Serhiy Gaidai. He has previously said the city has been largely reduced to rubble and that Russian shelling has made it impossible to deliver aid or to evacuate people. "These systems will be used by the Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used on targets in Russian territory," one U.S. official said.