Updates from day 92 of the invasion
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The Luhansk governor said the fight was fierce for control of a key highway.
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Ukraine’s armed forces say dozens of cities have been shelled in the past 24 hours.
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Four were reported killed in shelling in northwestern Ukraine in Kharkiv.
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Russia’s Peskov and the West have exchanged accusations of food supply problems.
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The World Health Organization will consider a resolution on the state of emergency in Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian military official admitted at a briefing Thursday that Russia currently has the upper hand in fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.
“Russia has the advantage, but we are doing everything possible,” said Gen. Alexey Gromov.
Gromov also said that Ukraine had watched Russia move Iskander missile systems to the western Brest region of Belarus, which Gromov said raised the possibility of new missile strikes on western Ukraine.
Russia has sent thousands of troops east, attacking from three countries in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk. The fall of the cities will put almost the entire province of Luhansk under Russian control.
Sergei Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk province, also acknowledged that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing, but said the last time Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, which crosses the Seversky Donets River, remained out of Russia’s control.
In an interview published on social media, Gaidai said that “about 50” Russian soldiers had reached the highway connecting Lisichansk with Ukraine-controlled Bakhmut and managed to fortify themselves for some time. They even set up a checkpoint there. “
“The checkpoint was broken, they were thrown back. That is, the Russian army does not control the route now, but is shelling it,” he added.
WATCH Ukrainian cities hit by Russian shelling:
Russia is shelling more than 40 Ukrainian cities
Salimakh Shivji traces Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.
“From the first day, the whole territory, all military positions were shelled. Many of our fortified structures were destroyed,” Gaidai said. “It is clear that our boys are slowly retreating to more fortified positions – we must keep this horde.”
He hinted at further withdrawal of the Ukrainians, saying it was possible for troops to leave “one settlement, maybe two.” We must win the war, not the battle.
A man walks past an abandoned building damaged by a missile strike on Thursday amid a Russian invasion of the country, in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast. (Carlos Beria / Reuters)
Western military analysts see the battle for the two cities as a potential turning point in the war, now that Russia has set its main goal as conquering the east.
Moscow has called its actions since February 24 a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and liberate it from what it calls Western-backed anti-Russian nationalism. Ukraine and the West say Russia has started an unprovoked aggressive war.
Several cities in Donbass avoiding the attack: Ukraine
Reuters reporters in Russian-held territory to the south saw evidence of Moscow’s advance in the city of Svetlodarsk, where Ukrainian forces withdrew earlier this week.
The city is now under the firm control of pro-Russian fighters who have occupied the local government building and hung a red flag with a hammer and sickle on the door.
Smoke and dirt rise after a strike at a factory in the town of Soledar in Donbass on Tuesday. (Aris Messinis / AFP / Getty Images)
Drone footage taken by Reuters reporters from a nearby abandoned battlefield shows dozens of craters marking a green field surrounded by destroyed buildings. Pro-Russian fighters were spinning in trenches.
Adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry Vadim Denisenko said at a briefing that the situation is very tense as 25 Russian battalions tried to encircle Ukrainian forces. A full battalion has about 800 soldiers.
Now everything is focused on Donbass.
Russia’s recent successes in Donbass follow the capitulation of the Ukrainian garrison in Mariupol last week and suggest a change in the momentum of the battlefield after weeks of Ukrainian forces advancing near Kharkov in the northeast.
“Russia’s latest gains offer a sobering test of expectations for the near future,” tweeted defense analyst Michael Coffman, director of Russian research at the US-based CNA think tank.
4 died in the shelling in Kharkov
Three months after invading Ukraine, Russia has abandoned its attack on the capital Kyiv and is trying to consolidate control over the industrial eastern Donbass, where it has supported the 2014 separatist uprising.
The Russian offensive was backed by massive artillery bombardment. Ukraine’s armed forces say more than 40 cities in the region have been shelled in the past 24 hours, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and schools.
While the battle is centered in the southeast, Kharkiv in the northeast announced the deaths on Thursday. At least four civilians have been killed and several wounded in Russian shelling of the city, the district governor said.
“The occupiers are shelling the regional center again,” Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Sinehubov wrote in the Telegram news app. He urged residents to go to shelters.
Scholz, a German, says West remains committed
World attention this week focused on Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which has halted exports from one of the world’s largest suppliers of grain and oil. The United Nations says the blockade could worsen global hunger.
Western countries have called on Moscow to lift the blockade. Russia says Western financial sanctions against Russia are to blame for the food crisis, although it has not explained how it relates to its naval blockade of Ukrainian ports.
WATCH How the war in Ukraine affects food supplies in Africa, the Middle East:
The war in Ukraine is deepening the global food crisis
The impact of the war in Ukraine extends far beyond the country’s borders, as Russian forces destroyed crops and blocked Black Sea ports, affecting food supplies to Africa and the Middle East.
“We categorically do not accept these accusations. On the contrary, we accuse Western countries of taking the actions that led to this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
Peskov said Moscow expects Ukraine to accept its demands in any future peace talks. He asked Kyiv to accept Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, seized by Moscow in 2014, and to recognize the independence of the territory claimed by the separatists.
Speaking to high-ranking officials in Davos, Switzerland, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russian President Vladimir Putin should not be allowed to dictate the terms of any peace agreement.
“There will be no dictated peace,” Scholz said. “Ukraine will not accept this, nor will we.
Shown are people boarding a bus in Kurakhove, eastern Ukraine on May 23rd. In the Donbass region, people continue to flee towns and villages under heavy bombardment. (Francisco Seco / Associated Press)
Meanwhile, a proposal to condemn the regional health situation caused by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine will be presented to the World Health Organization (WHO) assembly on Thursday, leading to a rival resolution from Moscow that did not mention its own role in the crisis.
The initial proposal, backed by the United States and more than 40 other countries, condemned Russia’s actions, but did not immediately suspend its voting rights at the UN health agency. A decision will also be made on the Russian document, supported by Syria, which reflects the language of the first text.
Both resolutions express “serious concern about the continuing health emergency in and around Ukraine”, but only the Western-led proposal says the emergency is “triggered by the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine”.
Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Simon Manley, called Russia’s resolution a “cynical attempt at distraction, disruption and confusion” on Twitter.
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