Seven die in Ukraine as Russia pounds Donetsk
Russian shelling killed at least seven people in Ukraine over the past 24 hours and wounded 25 more, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.
The country’s presidential office said Russian forces targeted cities and villages in southeast Ukraine, with most civilian casualties occurring in Donetsk province, where Russia stepped up its offensive in recent days.
Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram post that two people died in the city of Avdiivka, which is located in the centre of the province, and the Donetsk cities of Sloviansk, Krasnohorivka and Kurakhove each reported one civilian killed.
“Every crime will be punished,” he wrote.
Kyrylenko urged the province’s more than 350,000 remaining residents to flee late on Tuesday, saying that evacuating Donetsk was necessary to save lives and allow the Ukrainian army to put up a better defence against the Russian advance.
Donetsk is part of the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial area where Ukraine’s most experienced soldiers are concentrated. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared the complete seizure of the region’s other province, Luhansk, after Ukrainian troops withdrew from the last city under their country.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai denied on Wednesday that the Russians had com
A resident stands in front of a damaged school building in Lysychansk, Ukraine.
pletely captured the province. Heavy fighting continued in villages around Lysychansk, the city Ukrainians soldiers withdrew from and which Russian troops took on Sunday, he said.
“The Russians have paid a high price, but the Luhansk region is not fully captured by the Russian army,” Haidai said. “Some settlements have been overrun by each side several times already.”
He accused Russian forces of scorched earth tactics, “burning down and destroying everything on their way”.
Russian ex-president warns of nuclear war
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev invoked on Wednesday the possibility of nuclear war if the International Criminal Court (ICC) moves to punish Moscow for alleged crimes in Ukraine.
“The idea to punish a country that has the largest nuclear arsenal is absurd in and of itself,” Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said on messaging app Telegram.
“And potentially creates a threat to the existence of mankind.”
Medvedev, who was Putin’s stand- in president between 2008 and 2012, is now deputy head of the Security Council.
Russia says it destroyed two US Himars systems
Russia’s armed forces have destroyed two advanced US-made Himars rocket systems and their ammo depots in eastern Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry said Russia had destroyed two launchers for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems ( HIMARS) that the United States and its allies have been supplying to Kyiv.
‘EU must plan to move away from Russian gas’
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the 27-nation European Union needs to make emergency plans to prepare for a complete cut-off of Russian gas in the wake of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
The European Union has already imposed sanctions on Russia, including on some energy supplies, and is trying to find other sources.
But von der Leyen said the bloc needed to be ready for shock disruptions coming from Moscow.