At least 15 people were killed on Tuesday, including an eight-year-old boy, by Russian bombing in the Kharkov region, in eastern Ukraine, its governor said.
“Fifteen people were killed and 16 were injured. Such are the terrible consequences of Russian shelling during the day in the Kharkov region,” Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram.
(Read: Russia causes ‘catastrophic destruction’ in eastern Ukraine)
Russia is preparing its final offensive in Lugansk, where Ukraine is losing ground and Moscow has enough troops in Lugansk to launch a full-scale offensive in this region.
Towns still under Ukrainian control are being bombedincluding Severodonetsk, where Ukrainian troops now only control the Azot chemical plant.
We have an extremely difficult situation on the entire Luhansk front.
“The enemies are launching a large-scale offensive in our region, they have accumulated a sufficient number of reserves, said the governor, Serhiy Gaidai. “Today all free settlements in the region are on fire,” he added in his Telegram account.
Gaidai admitted for the first time that in Severodonetsk the fighting has focused on the industrial zone and that “Ukrainian troops control only the territory of the Azot plant.”
Until now he had refused despite the fact that the pro-Russian forces had been announcing it for several days. The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) found that “this week will be decisive for Russian efforts to take control of Severodonetsk.”
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that Russia has set June 26 as the deadline for achieving full control of Lugansk.
Complex situation in Lisichansk
An effort that is particularly observed in the neighboring city of Lisichansk, whose heights are used by the Ukrainian Army to attack the Russian Army in Severodonetsk.
This administrative center of the region is the object of “massive Russian shelling throughout the day,” Gaidai pointed out, according to whom the enemy is also advancing along the road that joins Lisichansk and Bakhmut.
Given the complexity of the situation, the Ukrainian president himself, Volodímir Zelenski, visited this city “in secret”, where he was even under Russian fire, according to the Ukrainian deputy Mariana Bezugla.
The Ukrainian president stated in his usual video message that Russia “is an evil that can only be defeated on the battlefield.” “We are defending Lisichansk and Severodonetsk. This whole region is the most difficult, the toughest battles are there,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashénkov, stated that “the grouping of Ukrainian troops in the Lisichansk area is cut off from supplies and is under the fire control of the Russian Armed Forces.”
“Reserves to compensate for losses are depleted. Territorial defense battalions, arriving from the western regions of Ukraine to reinforce, refuse to advance to the front line,” he said.
We can observe this location without the need for optical equipment, and naturally this allows our units to ‘work’ better.
Meanwhile, the Russian troops continue their advance, according to Russian television Andréi Marochko, an officer of the Lugansk separatist militias, noting that the pro-Russians are already at the gates of Lisichansk.
The fall of Lisichansk, according to the “ambassador” in Russia of the separatist region of Lugansk, Rodión Miroshnik, will coincide in time with the taking of Azot, since they are “interrelated processes”.
He pointed out that the Russian forces “are actively advancing from the south towards Lisichansk”, and anticipated that the balance of forces in this area will undergo “significant changes in the coming hours”.
A situation that, according to Gaidai, is far from being so serious and is nothing more than “Russian propaganda”, since the Ukrainians continue to defend the city and “the hospitals and morgues of the occupied territories are full of Russians”.
Pressure in the south and north
Meanwhile, while Russia increases its pressure in Lugansk, in other regions such as Kharkov, in the east as well, and Kherson and Zaporizhia, in the south, it has been content to hold positions and avoid Ukrainian counter-offensives, according to the ISW. .
“Russian forces north of the city of Kharkiv continued to focus on preventing further Ukrainian advances towards the border.“, noted the Institute, which stated that they have carried out artillery attacks on Ukrainian positions on the Mykolaiv and Kherson fronts.
Please leave, because our Army will take back these territories without a doubt.
The Russian Army is also seeking to reinforce its occupied positions in the Zaporizhia region, with the transfer of war equipment to the Vasylivka district, 40 kilometers from the regional capital.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, asked the residents of Kherson the day before to leave the region to avoid civilian casualties during a future Ukrainian offensive.
“Our will in this regard is unbreakable,” he said, noting that in the future it would be difficult to open humanitarian corridors.
‘Russification’ process
In addition to establishing itself militarily in the south of Ukraine, Russia is seeking to establish itself from the political-administrative point of view, especially with the massive delivery of Russian passports and the increasingly reiterated announcement of possible referendums on joining Russia.
In the Kherson region, occupied by the Russian Army at the end of February, the pro-Russian authorities have received more than 3,000 passport applications, according to the regional administration.
According to the deputy head of the Kherson Civil and Military Administration, Kiril Stremoúsov, a referendum on joining Russia could be held “next autumn (…) so that people can define once and for all where they are.”
Ukraine responds with attacks
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had bombed oil platforms in the Black Sea the day before that would have been used as military “installations” by the Russians to strengthen their control in the region.
in those facilitiesRussia organized small garrisons, stored air defense equipment, including radars. That is, these platforms have become facilities that have helped and are helping the Russians to strengthen their total control of the northwestern part of the Black Sea,” said Odessa region spokesman Sergei Brachuk.
According to Brachuk, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, there were also “reconnaissance” tools on the gas extraction platforms located 70 km from Odessa.
He already said on Monday that the platforms were “legal military targets” for Ukraine, calling them a “small garrison” in a video posted on Telegram. On Monday night a Russian official announced the disappearance of seven people.
According to Sergei Aksionov, the governor installed by Moscow after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the shots were aimed at three drilling platforms of the Chernomorneftegaz company, forcing the evacuation of 94 people.
This is the first reported attack on an offshore hydrocarbon infrastructure in Crimea since the Russian offensive in Ukraine began in February.
New artillery in Ukraine
Ukraine said Tuesday that it has deployed a sophisticated German artillery system, the latest delivery of long-range, high-precision weapons that kyiv has asked its allies to combat Russian troops.
Panzerhaubitze 2000 are finally part of the 155 mm howitzer arsenal of the Ukrainian artillery.
I appreciate all efforts of my colleague 🇩🇪 #DefMin Christine Lambrecht in support of 🇺🇦.
Our artillerymen will bring the heat to the battlefield 🔥🔥🔥!
Photo by BMVg_Bundeswehr pic.twitter.com/mP5M0BApvO— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) June 21, 2022
“The Panzerhaubitze 2000 are finally part of the arsenal of 155 mm howitzers of the Ukrainian artilleryUkrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov celebrated on Twitter. Germany said last month it would send Ukraine seven self-propelled howitzers to help its troops against Russia’s invasion.
The German Army has 100 of these howitzers in its inventory, but only 40 are combat-ready. The United States, France and other allies of Ukraine have promised to increase shipments of heavy weapons, but kyiv says it has received only a fraction of what it needs and is clamoring for more military aid.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
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