- Explosions shake Kyiv; an injured
- Kyiv and Moscow claim profits around Sievierodonetsk
- The governor says Ukrainian troops control half of the city
- Macron says it is important not to humiliate Russia
Kyiv, June 5 (Reuters) – Kyiv was shaken by several explosions in the early hours of Sunday, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said, a day after officials said his troops had recovered part of the city of Sievierodonetsk, an eastern battlefield, in a counter-offensive against Russia.
“Several explosions in the Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote in the Telegram messaging application. “Services are already working on site.”
A Reuters witness saw smoke in the city after the blasts.
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At least one person was hospitalized, but no deaths were reported until early Sunday, Klitschko said. Other officials said the Russian bombing appeared to be aimed at the railway network.
Despite continued Russian attacks on Ukraine and widespread destruction, Kyiv has been relatively calm in recent weeks after Moscow turned its military focus east and south, especially an intense battle for Sievierodonetsk.
Russia has concentrated its forces on the factory city for one of the largest ground battles of the war, with Moscow seemingly betting on its campaign to capture one of the two eastern provinces it is claiming on behalf of separatist representatives.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Lugansk region that includes Sievierodonetsk, said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces controlled about half of the city after recovering a large part of Russian troops.
“It was a difficult situation, the Russians controlled 70% of the city, but for the last two days they have been rejected,” Gaidai told Ukrainian television. “The city is now more or less divided in half.”
The claims could not be independently verified.
The British Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Ukraine’s counterattacks there over the past 24 hours were likely to reduce any operational momentum that Russian forces had previously gained.
Moscow said its own forces were making gains in the city. The Ukrainian army said that Russian forces continued to carry out assault operations with the help of artillery and controlled the eastern part of Sievierodonetsk.
“The situation is tense, complicated,” Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told national television on Saturday, saying there was a shortage of food, fuel and medicine. “Our military is doing everything possible to drive the enemy out of the city.”
Both sides claim to have caused heavy casualties in the fighting, a battle that, according to military experts, could determine which side has the impetus for a prolonged war of attrition in the coming months.
Ukrainian authorities say at least eight people have been killed and 11 injured in Russian bombings in the neighboring Donetsk region. Donetsk and Luhansk form the largest Donbas region, where Russia hopes to take control.
‘NO POINT’ IN THE NEGOTIATIONS
In the diplomatic arena, Kyiv has reprimanded French President Emmanuel Macron for saying it was important not to “humiliate” Moscow.
“We must not humiliate Russia so that on the day the fighting is over we can build an exit ramp by diplomatic means,” Macron said in an interview published on Saturday, adding that he was “convinced that France’s role is to be a mediating power “. “
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted in response: “Calls to prevent the humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and all other countries that demand it.
“Because it is Russia that is being humiliated. It is better for us all to focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.” Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered a harsh message: “The terrible consequences of this war can be stopped at any time … if a person in Moscow simply gives the order,” he said, in an apparent reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The fact that this order does not yet exist is obviously a humiliation for everyone.”
Putin will talk about the war in an interview on national television on Sunday. In a brief statement issued on Saturday, he said that Russian anti-aircraft forces have shot down dozens of Ukrainian weapons and “are breaking them as if they were new.” Read more
Ukraine says it aims to push Russian forces back as far as possible on the battlefield, with advanced missile systems compromised in recent days by the United States and Britain to turn the war in its favor.
Asked about Macron’s mediation offer on national television, Zelenskiy’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said it “made no sense to hold negotiations” until Ukraine received all the promised weapons, strengthened its position and pushed forces. Russians “back as far as possible on the borders of Ukraine.” .
Moscow has said Western weapons will pour “fuel into the fire,” but will not change the course of what it calls a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of nationalists.
In the 100th day of the war, tens of thousands of people are believed to have died, millions have been uprooted from their homes and the global economy has been shaken.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading sources of cereals and cooking oil, but these supplies were cut short in large part by Russia’s closure of its Black Sea ports, with more than 20 million tonnes of grain stuck to silos.
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Report by Natalia Zinets and Lidia Kelly; Written by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Edited by William Mallard
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