Russian forces in northeastern Ukraine, already pushed back to near the Russian border, appeared Thursday to be launching a new counteroffensive as the three-month-old war morphed into what some Western officials described as a “scrap” with no end in sight.
Authorities in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, said Russian shelling had killed at least seven civilians and wounded 17 others, while heavy fighting raged north and east of the city.
Witnesses in Kharkiv also reported hearing repeated explosions as Russian forces appeared to try to fortify positions north of the city.
Russian forces near Kharkiv had been steadily pushed from the city to close to the Russian border following a Ukrainian counteroffensive earlier this month. But officials said it appeared Moscow had decided to push back.
“It’s too early to relax,” said Kharkiv region Governor Oleh Synehubov. “The enemy is again insidiously hitting the civilian population, terrorizing them.”
Russian officials have not yet commented on the developments near Kharkiv, though the Russian military’s social media feeds touted continued success against Ukrainian forces, including in the Donbas region.
A senior U.S. defense official said Thursday that despite reports of increased fighting around Kharkiv, there had been “no major changes” on the ground.
“We still assess that Ukrainian forces have continued to push Russian forces further away [from the city],” the official said, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence.
“It’s a range of a few kilometers to more than 10 kilometers within the Russian border,” the official added.
But in other parts of eastern Ukraine, Russia was able to make what the official described as “incremental gains,” including in the city of Popasna and in Sievierodonetsk, the easternmost city under Ukrainian control.
“We believe that Russian forces have been able to seize most of northeastern Sievierodonetsk,” the U.S. defense official said. “But they haven’t been able to cut it completely off because the Ukrainians are still fighting over it.”
Ukrainian officials on Thursday acknowledged Russia was making a push to surround its troops fighting in the east with advances both on Sievierodonetsk and the nearby city of Lysychansk.
“Russia has the advantage, but we are doing everything we can,” General Oleksiy Gromov, with Ukraine’s general staff, told Reuters.
“It is clear that our boys are slowly retreating to more fortified positions — we need to hold back this horde,” added Luhansk province Governor Serhiy Gaidai.
In a show of support Thursday, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin visited Kyiv, plus the towns of Irpin and Bucha, the scene of alleged Russian war crimes.
“We, Finland, support all the actions of the International Criminal Court to consider these crimes, collect evidence for future proceedings and convict Russia,” Marin said following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy, in a post on social media, thanked Finland for its support.
“Finland’s military assistance is very valuable,” he wrote. “Weapons, sanctions policy and the unity of our partners in the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU — this is what can provide strength in the defense of our land.”
Despite the back-and-forth nature of the fighting and Russia’s superior numbers, Western officials continue to laud Kyiv for mounting a stiff resistance and for making good use of security assistance that continues to pour into the country.
Ukraine’s military has likewise shared some optimism about its ability to counter Russian forces, claiming it has killed 29,600 Russian forces since the start of the February 24 invasion.
U.S. estimates of Russia’s material losses, shared Thursday, are slightly more conservative than those coming from Kyiv. But the senior U.S. defense official said Russia has lost about 1,000 tanks, almost 40 aircraft, more than 50 helicopters and 350 pieces of artillery.
The official declined to share any estimates on Russian casualties but said the losses have not been insignificant, though things have changed since the start of the war.
“The Russians lose soldiers every day, but it’s a different … number based on the kind of fighting we’re seeing,” the official said. “The fighting is now largely over smaller pieces of turf with smaller units.”
Russia’s military Thursday issued its own estimates of Ukraine’s losses, saying its forces had so far destroyed 179 planes, 127 helicopters, more than 1,000 drones, hundreds of anti-aircraft systems, and more than 1,600 Ukrainian artillery and mortar systems.
In the meantime, key Western leaders Thursday emphasized the need to continue backing Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “must not win his war, and I am convinced he will not win,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He also said Russia should not be allowed to dictate the terms of a peace agreement.
“Ukraine will not accept this, and neither will we,” Scholz said.
Separately, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told the forum Ukraine was the “key for freedom in the world.”
“We’re defending not just our family and our children, we’re defending you, because we have the same values,” Klitschko said, adding that Russia would go as far as it was allowed to go.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Turkey‘s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pledging to return as many as one million Syrians amid growing public animosity against the refugees. Their presence is a potential political liability for Erdogan but as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, his plan for the refugees’ repatriation is already drawing criticism Producer: Rob Raffaele
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Загалом було задіяно 16 військових гелікоптерів
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Речник Держдепартаменту наголошує, що непродовольчі санкції США залишаться в силі, доки Путін не припинить цю жорстоку війну.
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Ситуація на фронті зараз залишається складною та має ознаки до подальшого загострення
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Calling Ukraine the “key for freedom in the world,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged support Thursday for his country in the face of what he called “this senseless war” with Russia.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Klitschko said Ukraine is a peaceful country that was not aggressive to anyone, and that Ukrainians want to be “part of the European family” with a priority on human rights, press freedom and “democratic standards of life.”
He said the Russian government wants to rebuild the Soviet Union and would not stop with a takeover of Ukraine.
“We’re defending not just our family and our children, we’re defending you because we have the same values,” Klitschko said, adding that Russia will go as far as it is allowed to go.
He thanked those who have supported Ukraine politically, economically and by sending weapons, and those who have taken in Ukrainians refugees.
Noting that it has been more than 90 days since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Klitschko said it feels to him like “one long, long day.”
Also speaking Thursday in Davos, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russian President Vladimir Putin “must not win his war, and I am convinced he will not win.”
Scholz said Putin will likely only seriously negotiate with Ukraine if he accepts that Russia cannot win, something that makes Western support for Ukraine essential.
He also said Russia should not be allowed to dictate the terms of a peace agreement.
“Ukraine will not accept this, and neither will we,” Scholz said.
In an address late Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the idea of ceding parts of Ukraine to Russia for the sake of a peace deal.
Zelenskyy said those who make such suggestions disregard “the millions of those who actually live on the territory that they propose exchanging for an illusion of peace.”
“We always have to think of the people and remember that values are not just words,” he said.
Fighting in recent weeks has been focused in the eastern Donbas region where Russia has been trying to seize control after failing to topple Zelenskyy or capture Kyiv.
The Ukrainian governor of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, described the situation around the industrial hub of Severodonetsk as “very difficult” and said there was “already fighting on the outskirts.”
“Russian troops have advanced far enough that they can already fire mortars” on the city, he said.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin issued an order that would fast-track Russian citizenship to people living in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. There is already a program to fast-track citizenship for people living in the Donbas.
Meanwhile, the European Union, Britain and the United States announced the creation of what they called the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group to coordinate with Ukraine on investigations of possible Russian war crimes during the three months of fighting.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Олександр Старух переконаний, що серед жителів Запорізької області охочих отримати російські паспорти буде небагато.
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Шарль Мішель закликає зупинити війну та відновити глобальні шляхи постачання продовольства.
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При цьому щодо українських суддів, які підтримали агресора чи перейшли на його бік, відкриті провадження та тривають слідчі дії, наголошують у ОП
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:
4:20 a.m.: Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko called Ukraine the “key for freedom in the world” and urged for more support Thursday as his country faces what he called “this senseless war” with Russia.
Klitschko said Ukraine is a peaceful country that was not aggressive toward anyone, and that Ukrainians want to be “part of the European family” with a priority on human rights, press freedom and “democratic standards of life.”
Russia on the other hand, he said, wants to rebuild the Soviet Union and would not stop with a takeover of Ukraine. “We’re defending not just our family and our children, we’re defending you because we have the same values,” Klitschko said, adding that Russia will go as far as it is allowed to go. He thanked those who have supported Ukraine politically, economically and by sending weapons, and those who have taken in Ukrainians refugees. Noting that it has been more than 90 days since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Klitschko said it feels to him like “one long, long day.”
4 a.m.: Fighting in recent weeks has been focused in the eastern Donbas region where Russia has been trying to seize control after failing to topple Zelenskyy or capture Kyiv.
The Ukrainian governor of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, described the situation around the industrial hub of Severodonetsk as “very difficult” and said there was “already fighting on the outskirts.”
“Russian troops have advanced far enough that they can already fire mortars” on the city, he said.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin issued an order that would fast-track Russian citizenship to people living in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. There is already a program to fast-track citizenship for people living in the Donbas.
3:59 a.m.: ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad Khan spoke to CNN about his war crimes inquiry in Ukraine, saying, “We need to not lose hope, even in these desperately uncertain times.”
3:45 a.m.: A proposal to condemn the regional health emergency triggered by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine will come before a World Health Organization (WHO) assembly on Thursday, prompting a rival resolution from Moscow that makes no mention of its own role in the crisis, Reuters reported.
The original proposal, backed by the United States and more than 40 other countries, condemns Russia’s actions but stops short of immediately suspending its voting rights at the U.N. health agency. The Russian document backed by Syria, which echoes the language of the first text, will also be decided on, the report said.
3:02 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry says Russia’s air forces, the 45,000-member VDV, has been “heavily involved in several notable tactical failures” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The VDV has been employed on missions better suited to heavier armoured infantry and has sustained heavy casualties during the campaign,” the update says. “Its mixed performance likely reflects a strategic mismanagement of this capability and Russia’s failure to secure air superiority.”
It goes on to say that the VDV’s “misemployment” demonstrates that Russia has “an unbalanced overall force” and says that Russian complacency has led to significant losses in Russia’s elite units.
2:15 a.m.: Reuters reported that the leader of Russian-backed separatists in the breakaway Donetsk region called on Thursday for the military operation in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to be accelerated, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said Kyiv had blocked water supplies to key cities in the north of the region and called for military action to be stepped up.
2:03 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, says that Russian forces are dealing with an increasing scarcity of high-precision weapons. “The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) noted that up to 60% of Russia’s high-precision stockpile has already been exhausted,” the Institute said in a recent update. Additionally, it said, Russia is trying to force Ukrainians in occupied areas to cooperate with “occupation organs” and is trying to get Ukrainians into the Russian army.
1:30 a.m.: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to give a speech Thursday in which she plans to call on allies to continue support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.
In a speech to Bosnia and Herzegovina armed forces at Sarajevo’s Army Hall, The Guardian shared excerpts from prepared remarks. “Russia’s aggression cannot be appeased. It must be met with strength. We must not allow a prolonged and increasingly painful conflict to develop in Ukraine,” the newspaper reported.
Earlier, Truss announced plans for $100 million of U.K.-backed investment in the Western Balkans by 2025 to counter Russian efforts in the region, VOA’s national security correspondent Jeff Seldin reported.
1 a.m.: Russian troops continue to attack eastern Ukraine, reports The Guardian. Ukrainian military, says the report, say 40 towns in the Donbas region are under fire.
12:02 a.m.: Al Jazeera reports that Russia has promised to allow foreign ships to leave ports in the Black Sea. A defense ministry official says 70 foreign vessels from 16 countries are currently in six ports in the Black Sea.
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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Заступник голови ОП вважає, що конституційна реформа часів Порошенка «створила КСУ як орган, який взагалі є недоторканим»
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«Франція продовжує підтримку», прокоментував голова українського МЗС
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Якщо переговори щодо відновлення угоди проваляться, Сполучені Штати «готові продовжувати застосовувати та посилювати» санкції
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Piano music wafted from an apartment block on a recent spring evening in Kramatorsk, blending with distant artillery fire for a surreal soundtrack to a bomb-scarred neighborhood in the eastern Ukrainian city.
Everywhere in Ukraine, the 3-month-old war never seems to be far away.
Those in towns and villages near the front lines hide in basements from constant shelling, struggling to survive with no electricity or gas — and often no running water.
But even in regions out of the range of the heavy guns, frequent air raid sirens wail as a constant reminder that a Russian missile can strike at any time — even for those walking their dogs, riding their bicycles and taking their children to parks in cities like Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv.
Curfews, checkpoints and fortifications are commonplace. So are fresh cemeteries, uprooted villagers and war-scarred landscapes, as Moscow intensifies its attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine.
“City residents are trying to return to regular life, but with every step, they stumble upon either a crater or a ruined house or a grave in the yard,” said Andriy Pustovoi, speaking by phone to The Associated Press from the northern city of Chernihiv. “No one is cooking food over a bonfire or drinking water from a river anymore, but there’s a long way to go to a normal life.”
Chernihiv was in the way of Russian forces as they advanced toward Kyiv early in the war. It was heavily bombarded, and Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko said about half of its buildings were damaged or destroyed. At least 700 residents were killed, and part of a city park now holds a cemetery, where some of them are buried.
Its streets are mostly empty now, half of the shops have not reopened and public transportation is not working properly, said Pustovoi, a 37-year-old engineer.
Rail service to Kyiv was only restored this month, but people who fled are in no rush to return.
“The scariest thing is that neighboring Russia and Belarus are not going away from Chernihiv, which means that some of the residents that left when the war started may not come back,” Atroshenko said sadly.
Few people are seen on the streets of Kramatorsk, where storefront windows are boarded up or protected by sandbags, and it’s no wonder.
The eastern city has been hit several times, with the deadliest attack April 8, when a missile struck near its train station where about 4,000 people had gathered to be evacuated before fighting intensified. In an instant, the plaza was turned into a scene of horror, with bodies lying on bloodstained pavement amid discarded luggage. A total of 57 people were killed, and more than 100 wounded.
Kramatorsk is one of the largest in the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that has not been taken over by Russian forces. The region has been the site of battles between Moscow-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces since 2014.
Elsewhere in the Donbas, the picture is even bleaker.
Ryisa Rybalko fled the village of Novomykhailivka, where she had been living first in a basement and then a bomb shelter at a school because of frequent shelling.
“We haven’t been able to see the sun for three months. We are almost blind because we were in darkness for three months,” Rybalko said. She arrived with her family in the town of Kiurakhove, driven by a fellow villager, and waited on Monday for a westbound bus.
Her son-in-law, Dmytro Khaliapin, said their village was pounded by artillery.
“Houses are ruined. It’s a horror,” he said.
In neighboring Luhansk province, 83-year-old Lida Chuhay left the hard-hit town of Lyman, also near the front line.
“Ashes, ruins. The northern parts, the southern parts, all are ruined,” she said Sunday as she sat on a train heading west from the town of Pokrovsk. “Literally everything is on fire: houses, buildings, everything.”
Chuhay and others from Lyman said much of the town was reduced to rubble by the bombardment. Anyone still there is hiding in shelters because it is too dangerous to venture out.
“They ruined everything,” said Olha Medvedeva, sitting opposite Chuhay on the train. “The five-story building where we were living, everything flew away — the windows, the doors.”
In cities farther from the front lines, air raid sirens sound so often that few pay attention and continue their daily business.
After Russian forces failed to capture Kyiv in the opening weeks of the invasion and withdrew to the east, residents started to flow back into the capital. The nightly curfew has been cut by an hour, and public transportation started running longer to accommodate passengers.
Residents face long lines at gas stations, and the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnya, has weakened from 27 to the dollar at the start of the war to 37.
“Ukraine is being destroyed — not just by Russian bombs and missiles,” said Volodymyr Sidenko, an analyst at the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think tank. “The fall in GDP (gross domestic product) and the sharp reduction in the revenue side of the budget have already been felt by every Ukrainian today. And this is just the beginning.”
But the National Opera resumed performances last week in Kyiv, with the audience advised how to reach the air raid shelter. No Russian operas are on the program.
And some restaurants, cafes and shops in cities such as Odesa and Zaporizhzhia have reopened.
Lviv, the city in western Ukraine about 70 kilometers from the Polish border, has been inundated with more than 300,000 people fleeing the war. About 1,000 arrive at its railway station daily.
“We judge the intensity of the fighting in the east not by (what) the news says but by waves of refugees, which have been growing in recent weeks again,” said Alina Gushcha, a 35-year-old chemistry teacher who volunteers at the rail station to help arrivals.
Hotels, campgrounds, universities and schools ran out of space long ago, and the city has built temporary housing that resembles shipping containers in city parks.
“In the months of the war, I’ve learned to be happy about every day without shelling and bombardment,” said Halyna Shcherbin, 59, outside her container-like home in Stryiskyi Park, where she lives with her daughter and two granddaughters. That gratitude is perhaps linked to the fact that they left Kramatorsk the day before the deadly missile attack.
Lviv also comes under regular Russian bombardment because it’s the gateway for Western military aid. Its Old Town architectural treasures, including the Boim Chapel and the Latin Cathedral, are protected by either metal shielding or sandbags.
In cities and towns of southern Ukraine, not far from the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, the war continues to flare with regularity.
Parts of the city of Mykolaiv often come under attack, and its streets are mostly empty and businesses closed. In some neighborhoods, the scars of war are clear, with blast marks on sidewalks, burned-out stores and shrapnel embedded in walls. The Russian-occupied city of Kherson is only 58 kilometers to the east.
In the village of Velyka Kostromka, south of the city of Kryvy Rih, the remaining residents try to go on with life despite the occasional shelling. At least 20 houses were damaged on a recent morning, including three that were destroyed. A woman and her three children narrowly escaped with their lives.
Hours later, a farmer was back in his potato field, surveying a small crater left behind. With barely a shrug, he raked over it.
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Greece will send Iranian oil from a seized Russian-flagged tanker to the United States at the request of the U.S. judiciary, Greek port police said Wednesday, a decision that angered Tehran.
Last month the Greek authorities seized the Pegas, which was said to have been heading to the Marmara terminal in Turkey.
The ship was moored at Karystos anchorage with its crew, said to be Russians, on board. The Greek coast guard said the vessel had been renamed “Lana.”
Authorities seized the ship in accordance with EU sanctions introduced after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
According to information at the time, the tanker was carrying 115,000 tons of Iranian oil.
“Following a request from the U.S. justice system, the oil is to be transferred to the United States at the expense of that country,” a spokeswoman for the Greek port police told AFP on Wednesday.
Tehran strongly protested the decision, calling it “international robbery,” the Iranian maritime authority said.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not waive its legal rights and expects the Greek government to adhere to its international obligations in the field of seafaring and shipping,” the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran added, in a statement posted on its website.
Iran’s foreign affairs ministry late Tuesday called on the Greek government, via the International Maritime Organization, to release the tanker and its crew, adding that “Americans unloaded the cargo of the ship.”
Athens did not respond immediately to the Iranian protests and provided no further details about the oil or how it would be transferred to the United States.
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Додон називає переслідування політично вмотивованим
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«Повна допомога! Без винятків, без обмежень», – сказав президент у зверненні 25 травня
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«Припиніть купувати в Росії. Припиніть дозволяти їм заробляти гроші, які вони можуть інвестувати у військову машину, яка знищує, вбиває, ґвалтує й катує людей в Україні»
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