Russian forces press on to capture key city
Ukraine has issued increasingly urgent calls for more Western weapons to help defend Severodonetsk
Agencies
KYIV/BAKHMUT: Russian forces swarmed into the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk and pounded a zone where hundreds of civilians were sheltering, a Ukrainian official said on Monday - a scene that mirrored Moscow’s assault on Mariupol last month.
Pro-moscow separatists claimed the last bridge out of Severodonetsk had been destroyed and Ukrainian defenders there must now surrender or die. Ukraine said there was still another way out, although that route was severely damaged.
Ukraine has issued increasingly urgent calls for more Western weapons to help defend Severodonetsk, which Kyiv says could hold the key to the outcome of the battle for control of the eastern Donbas region and the future course of the war.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak listed equipment he said was needed for heavy weapons parity, including 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones.
“The battles are so fierce that fighting for not just a street but for a single high-rise building can last for days,” regional governor Sergei Gadai said on social media.
Russian forces now controlled about 80% of Severodonetsk, he said, and were destroying it “quarter by quarter” in one of the bloodiest assaults since they launched their invasion on February 24.
“Russians continue to storm the city, having a significant advantage in artillery they have somewhat pushed back the Ukrainian soldiers,” said Gaidai, who is governor of the Luhansk region that includes Severodonetsk.
War crimes
On Monday, Amnesty International accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, saying that attacks on the northeastern city of Kharkiv - many using banned cluster bombs - had killed hundreds of civilians.
Meanwhile, another seven bodies, several with their hands and legs tied, were found in a grave near Bucha, a town near Kyiv synonymous with war crimes allegations, the regional police said on Monday.
‘Out of it’
Speaking to AFP, Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, said he thought President Vladimir Putin was “out of it”, after seeing the Russian leader summon the country’s top brass for a theatrical meeting three days before the invasion on February 24. “I knew a different Putin,” said Kasyanov, 64, who served under Vladimir Putin but has become one of the Kremlin’s most vocal critics.
Kasyanov predicted the war could last for up to two years and said it is imperative that Ukraine win. “If Ukraine falls, the Baltic states will be next,” he said.
$98bn from fuel exports
Russia earned $98 billion from fossil fuel exports during the first 100 days of its war in Ukraine, with most sent to the European Union, according to research published on Monday.
The report from the independent, Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air comes as Kyiv urges the West to sever all trade with Russia in the hopes of cutting off the Kremlin’s financial lifeline. According to the report, the EU took 61% of Russia’s fuel exports worth about $60bn.