Russian forces has continued to shell the Donbas as Ukrainian officers say the state of affairs on your complete entrance line within the east is “extraordinarily tough” and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Moscow was “very nervous” in regards to the approaching determination of the European Council on granting Ukraine candidate standing for EU membership.
Ukrainian forces proceed to defend Lysychansk and Syevyerodonetsk, the place probably the most tough preventing is going down, mentioned Luhansk army governor Serhiy Hayday.
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Hayday mentioned on nationwide tv that Russian forces managed most of Syevyerodonetsk however not the Azot chemical plant, the place a whole lot of civilians have been sheltering for weeks. He mentioned the highway connecting Syevyerodonetsk and Lysychansk to town of Bakhmut was underneath fixed shellfire.
“Lysychansk has been affected by large Russian shelling all day. It’s unattainable to determine the variety of casualties as of but,” he mentioned, including that the shelling has been maybe the heaviest town had but skilled.
Nevertheless, the Russians have failed up to now to finish an encirclement of Ukrainian forces, who have been inflicting “important losses” on them, he mentioned.
Whereas Russia has been concentrating its firepower on the Donbas, superior Western weapons programs donated to Ukraine have begun to make their mark elsewhere on the entrance line, British army intelligence mentioned in its every day bulletin on June 21.
Ukrainian forces final week claimed their first profitable use of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the British Protection Ministry mentioned on Twitter.
“The goal of the assault was nearly definitely the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which was delivering weapons and personnel to Snake Island within the northwestern Black Sea,” it mentioned, including that Ukraine had largely neutralized Russia’s potential to determine management within the northwestern Black Sea.
In Ukraine’s largest Black Sea port, Odesa, which is blockaded by the Russian Navy, a Russian missile destroyed a meals warehouse on June 20, Ukraine’s army mentioned.
The chief of Moscow-annexed Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, mentioned on June 20 that three folks have been wounded and 7 extra lacking after Ukrainian forces attacked oil drilling platforms within the Black Sea off the Crimean coast. The knowledge couldn’t be independently verified.
Zelenskiy, in the meantime, predicted Moscow would escalate assaults forward of the EU summit later this week, and he was defiant once more on June 20 in his night deal with to the nation.
“Step-by-step we’re going by way of an important week and we’re doing every part each day in order that nobody has any doubts that Ukraine deserves” EU candidate standing, he mentioned. “We’re proving each day that we’re already a part of united Europe.”
Ukraine utilized for EU membership days after the Russian invasion started on February 24 and was adopted by bids from close by Moldova and Georgia within the face of the regional menace posed by Russia’s unprovoked assault.
Leaders of all 27 EU states will take into account the three purposes at a summit on June 23-24.
Zelenskiy mentioned Russia “could be very nervous about our exercise” and once more shelled the key cities Kharkiv and Odesa on June 20 and likewise continued its offensive within the Donbas area.
“That is an evil that may be appeased solely on the battlefield,” Zelenskiy mentioned. “The occupiers are receiving solutions to their actions in opposition to us.”
Russian information company Interfax reported on June 21 that two Individuals captured in Ukraine earlier this month whereas preventing with Ukrainian forces are presently positioned in separatist-controlled Donetsk. Interfax was citing an unnamed supply.
The report comes after the Kremlin mentioned on June 20 that the 2 have been mercenaries not coated by the Geneva Conventions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s feedback have been the primary formal acknowledgment that the 2 males, recognized in U.S. stories as Andy Huynh, 27, and Alexander Drueke, 39, have been being held. He mentioned they need to take duty for his or her “crimes.”
Western governments have mentioned the lads have been preventing with Ukrainian army forces after they have been captured and subsequently must be handled as prisoners of conflict underneath the Geneva Conventions.
Earlier this month, two Britons and a Moroccan have been sentenced to loss of life by a separatist courtroom after being captured whereas preventing for Ukraine.
