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news of the day
The noose is tightening on Lyssytchansk and Severodonetsk. According to a representative of the pro-Russian separatists, these towns in Donbass are about to be surrounded after weeks of fighting. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrei Marotchko assured Russian television Rossiïa 24 that the Ukrainian forces had been surrounded in the villages of Hirske and Zolote, the day after the capture of the neighboring town of Tochkivka.
All these localities are located a few kilometers from Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk, taken under the fire of Russian artillery and devastated. “The victories and successes are colossal. Over the past two days, a tremendous amount of work has been accomplished,” the separatist soldier said.
sentence of the day
“Germany carries out daily attacks which fuel the Russophobic hysteria. »
This is a statement from Russian diplomacy itself. Moscow commemorated the Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941 on Wednesday and, on the occasion, accused Germany of fueling “Russophobic hysteria”. “Berlin, by its words and its deeds, threatens the results of the efforts made for decades by Russia and Germany to overcome the enmity (…) after the war”, estimates the Kremlin.
The number of the day
568. This is the number of people who took refuge inside the Azot factory in Severodonetsk, according to the head of the district, Roman Vlasenko. Among them are 38 children. According to the governor of the region, these civilians refuse to evacuate and are supplied with food, water and medicine.
The trend of the day
The battle intensifies in the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine, which challenges Russian naval power there. In the space of a few days, according to belligerents and observers of the conflict, events accelerated, particularly around Serpents’ Island, a strategic Ukrainian islet.
This renewed activity is notably linked to kyiv’s use of Western weapons, such as the Harpoon anti-ship missiles fired from the coast. But it was another anti-ship missile, a Ukrainian Neptune, which sank the cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, in April.
“We are in a new phase of the war, in the sense that Ukraine has new Western weapons, such as Harpoons or [les missiles air-sol] Brimstone. It can start to challenge the Russian Navy, which needs to be less daring”, explains HI Sutton, independent defense analyst.