Russia expands control over major Ukrainian city as US plans to increase Kiev firepower

It is unclear how many new systems US officials claim can hit targets at a distance of 40 miles or more. Training on how to use them will start quickly and take at least 10 days.

Although Ukrainians are learning to use personalized weapon systems, researchers say they can be very effective when they use them in concert. Western governments hope that the steady flow of weapons will help the Kiev government to reverse the war in eastern Ukraine. Russia wants to capture DonbassIt was once the industrial center of Ukraine, which borders Russia.

“The Russian military is trying to mobilize large forces in some areas to put more and more pressure on our guards,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday. “There, in Donbass, the Russian army has accumulated maximum combat power.”

Leonid Paseknik, the Russian-backed leader of the Luhansk People’s Republic, told the Russian state-run TASS news agency one-third earlier Tuesday. Severodonetsk is regulated By separatist forces. A video of Chechen fighters allied with Russia in the city showed troops moving unhindered through the city center. The Luhansk region and neighboring Donetsk form the Donbass region.

On Tuesday evening Luhansk regional governor Sergei Haidai said in a telegram that most of Chevroletonetsk was under Russian control. He said the Russians attacked a tank containing nitric acid at a nearby chemical plant and posted pictures online of a dark orange cloud in the sky above the city. He warned residents to stay in the area and provided instructions on how to improve the home gas mask against smoke.

The fall of Chevroletonetsk will bring the Russians closer Their goal is to control the Donbass Also give them a firm grip on the roads leading to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which are considered the most important areas of the Ukrainian army. Russia’s attack on Chevroletonetsk has cost its armed forces dearly, leaving Russia without a manpower following its failed attempt to seize Kiev.

If Ukraine leaves the Chevrolet Donetsk to the Russians, Kiev’s troops may return to the neighboring city of Lysyansk, which oversees the Chevrolet Donetsk across the river.

On Tuesday, it was discovered that two Russian soldiers had indiscriminately fired rockets at civilian areas. Ukraine’s second war crimes trial Since the war began in February. Soldiers sentenced to six months less than the maximum sentence imposed in Ukraine for violating Porsche laws were sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison each.

Prosecutors said the attacks at the center of the case took place in the early hours of February 24, the first day of the war. The battalion of soldiers was stationed in the Russian city of Belgorod beyond the Kharkiv border, from which soldiers testified that they fired dozens of rockets at Ukraine in their vehicles and other vehicles. The missiles struck a power plant, apartment buildings and a veterinary school.

The soldiers then entered Ukraine and continued firing, this time on Kharkiv, prosecutors said. Their column came under attack, and two soldiers, a driver and a gunman, later surrendered to Ukrainian forces.

Russia also moved to deepen its control over some of the occupied territories. Kirill Stremousov, Russia-appointed deputy head of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region, told TASS that the region plans to become an official Russian territory “in the future.”

The Russian government-run RIA Novosti news agency, Mr. Stremousov commented that all stores in Kherson now accept the Russian ruble, while TASS claimed that Ukrainian mobile communications were disconnected after the stimulus to switch to the Russian language. SIM cards.

The European Union (EU) on Monday announced the launch of its sixth sanctions package Ban on Russian oil In connection with the Moscow invasion of Ukraine. The ban includes an exemption for piped oil from Russia, which accounts for one-third of EU oil purchases from Russia. EU officials say by the end of this year, 90% of previous Russian oil imports will be banned. This will be done gradually over several months.

Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to the state-owned Dutch energy company GasTerra after Moscow refused to pay in rubles following the invasion of Ukraine.

The company, which is 50% owned by the Dutch government, joins Poland, Bulgaria and Finland in suspending gas supplies by Russia due to the payment mechanism. Of some Europe’s largest natural gas utilityHowever, Russia’s Gazprom has agreed with PJSC on new tariff terms.

Meanwhile, African Union President Maggie Sall told EU leaders on Tuesday that sanctions on Russia were having side effects in countries that needed them. The leader of Senegal, Mr. Speaking at the EU summit, Saul said it had become difficult to pay for Russian food exports as the United States, the European Union and their allies had removed the largest Russian banks from the Swift payment system. Russia has also besieged Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, from which large quantities of grain are generally exported.

Instead of mentioning Russia’s role in the siege of the port of Odessa, he said the 55-member union would support the “proposed UN mechanism to help prevent the situation.” UN officials are trying to create an agreement to transport grain from Ukrainian ports to countries that rely on food exports from Ukraine.

– George Kontsev and Daniel Michaels contributed to this article.

Write to Thomas Grove at [email protected]