Russian President Vladimir Putin today (Saturday) referred to the United States’ decision to send more weapons to Ukraine and said: “We are cracking them like nuts, dozens have already been destroyed.” At the same time, Ukraine reports that the city of Lyman in the Donetsk Oblast “has been wiped off the face of the earth.” According to the mayor, the entire city is under Russian control and the supply of gas, water and electricity has been stopped. He added that “there are about 7,500 residents there and there is no way to rescue them.”
Russian military forces are blowing up bridges along the Sivarskiy Donts River to prevent Ukraine from moving to a military reinforcement zone and passing aid to civilians in the city of Sverdansk, the more Luhansk Oblast governor said. According to Sarhai Gaidai, the Ukrainian army has recaptured about one-fifth of the territories Russia has occupied in the city. At the same time, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pavel Jablonski said that the EU had begun formulating a seventh package of sanctions against Russia.
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On the centenary of Russia’s invasion, the provincial governor said last night that it was unlikely the city would fall in the next two weeks, despite the reinforcements Russia is placing in the region. He said that once the Ukrainian forces had enough long-range weapons, they would be able to repel Russian artillery fire from their positions.
A senior Kiev administration official told News News that it looks like next month, or in August, Ukraine will launch a counterattack. President Zalanski’s adviser, Olksey Arstovich, said in an interview aired last night on this week’s program with Redemption here 11 that the war could last a year, but stressed that “it is impossible to know when the war will end, it could end in another five minutes if Putin wants.”