“Street fights” underway in Lyssychansk, near Severodonetsk
Russian and pro-Russian forces entered Lyssychansk on Saturday and “street fighting” is now taking place in this neighboring town of Severodonetsk, a strategic lock in eastern Ukraine in the process of being taken by Moscow, separatists said .
“People’s militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Russian army have entered the city of Lysychansk. Some businesses in the city have already been taken. Street fights are taking place there now,” a representative said on Telegram. pro-Russian separatists, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrei Marochko.
Spain votes on a new aid plan of nine billion euros to fight against the economic impact of the conflict in Ukraine
The Spanish government announced this Saturday a new direct aid plan amounting to nine billion euros to mitigate the economic consequences of the conflict in Ukraine on the Spanish population.
Presenting these measures at a press conference in Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez specified that if these new measures were added to those of an amount of six billion euros already taken in March, these direct aids would represent up to at the end of the year a total of 15 billion euros, or “more than one point of our country’s GDP”.
>> Our complete article on this aid plan.
Ukraine and Moldova EU candidacies: kyiv says Russia’s condemnations ‘show its weakness’
The Kremlin’s condemnations denouncing a “geopolitical grab” targeting Russia, following the granting to Ukraine and Moldova of the status of candidate for the European Union, “show its weakness”, estimated this Saturday Kyiv .
“All that is left for Russia is to spit threats against other states after decades of failed policies based on aggression, coercion and disrespect. This only shows the weakness of the Russia,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said on Twitter.
Russia claims to have killed ‘up to 80’ Polish fighters
Russia claimed on Saturday to have killed “up to 80” Polish fighters in a bombardment in eastern Ukraine, where fighting is raging between forces from kyiv and those from Moscow.
“Up to 80 Polish mercenaries, 20 armored fighting vehicles and eight Grad multiple rocket launchers were destroyed in high-precision weapons strikes on the Megatex zinc plant in the Konstantinovka locality”, in the region of Donetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
This claim was not independently verifiable.
Russian strikes from Belarus: kyiv accuses Moscow of wanting to “draw” Minsk “into the war”
kyiv accused Moscow on Saturday of wanting to “draw” Minsk, Russia’s diplomatic ally, “into the war” in Ukraine, after reporting earlier in the morning Russian missiles fired from neighboring Belarus at a Ukrainian village.
“Today’s strike is directly linked to the Kremlin’s efforts to draw Belarus into the war in Ukraine as a co-belligerent,” the Ukrainian General Intelligence Directorate, attached to the Defense Ministry, said on Telegram.
Missiles fired from Belarus, an ally of Moscow, towards Ukraine
Missiles were fired from Belarus, a diplomatic ally of Moscow, towards the Cherniguiv border region in Ukraine, northeast of kyiv, the Ukrainian army said on Saturday.
“Around 05:00 a.m., the Cherniguiv region came under massive missile bombardment. Twenty rockets targeted the village of Desna, fired from the territory of Belarus (and also) from the air,” the Northern Command said on Facebook. Ukrainian troops, stating that “there were no casualties” at this stage.
Polish flag removed from memorial in Russia amid tensions between Moscow and Warsaw
Russian authorities have removed Poland’s flag from a memorial erected in memory of thousands of Poles massacred by the Soviets, a move that comes amid tensions between Moscow and Warsaw over Ukraine.
On Friday evening, Smolensk Mayor Andrei Borissov confirmed the removal of the flag by posting a photo showing only the Russian flag flying at the entrance to the Katyn memorial, located in the Smolensk region in western Russia. Russia.
“There can’t be a Polish flag on Russian monuments. And even less so after frankly anti-Russian statements from Polish politicians,” Andrei Borissov said on his VKontakte account, the main Russian social network.
Poland, a member of NATO, has supported Ukraine by supplying it with weapons.
Moscow denounces the formalization of Ukraine’s candidacy for the European Union
While Ukraine is officially a candidate to join the European Union, Moscow denounced Friday a “geopolitical grab” for “contain Russia”.
The decision of the twenty-seven members of the European Union to authorize this candidature as well as that of Moldova “confirms that a geopolitical monopolization of the space of the CIS (the Commonwealth of Independent States, which brings together several countries of ex-USSR) is actively pursued in order to contain Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
kyiv asks its allies to give it “fire parity” against Moscow
Ukraine is urging its allies to give it “fire parity” with Russian forces to “stabilize” the situation in the Donbass after the withdrawal of its troops from Severodonetsk.
“I stressed the need to achieve fire parity with the enemy, which will allow us to stabilize the situation in the most threatened region of Lugansk,” said Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, reporting on a telephone conversation with his American counterpart, General Mark Milley.
Ukraine continues to demand more heavy weapons from its allies to counter Russian strike power, particularly in the Donbass, an industrial region in the east of the country, already partially under the control of pro-Russian separatists since 2014, and which Moscow has sworn to conquer completely.
Ukrainian forces withdrew from Severodonetsk
Ukrainian forces were ordered on Friday to withdraw from Severodonetsk. This city in the east of the country had until then been the scene of intense fighting with the Russian army.
“It no longer makes sense to stay in positions that have been constantly bombarded for months,” Sergei Gaïdaï, the governor of Lugansk, said Friday in a message on Telegram.
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