The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Russia continues attack on east region
Ukrainian official pleads with West for ‘weapons, weapons and weapons.’
Russian shelling killed four people in Sievierodonetsk over the past 24 hours, regional governor Serhiy Haidai wrote in a Telegram post Friday.
KRAMATORSK, UKRAINE — Russia-backed separatists claimed they captured a railway hub city in eastern Ukraine as Moscow’s forces strived to gain more ground Friday by pounding another Ukrainian-held area where authorities say 1,500 people have died since the start of the war.
With Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region showing incremental progress, Ukrainian officials characterized the battle there in grave terms and renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry.
Ukraine’s foreign minister pleaded for “weapons, weapons and weapons again,” warning that without a new injection of foreign arms, Ukrainian forces would not be able to stop Russia’s advance on the east.
The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled some territory for eight years.
“There are battles on the outskirts of the city. Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night,” Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told The Associated Press. “The city is being systematically destroyed — 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged.”
An assault was underway in the city’s northeastern quarter, where Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to capture the Mir Hotel and the area around it Friday, Stryuk said.
At least 1,500 people have died in Sievierodonetsk because of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, he said.
The figure includes people killed by shelling or in fires caused by Russian missile strikes, as well as those who died from shrapnel wounds, untreated diseases, a lack of medicine or while trapped under rubble, according to the mayor.
“For a month and a half, because of the shelling, it has not been possible to provide people with full-fledged medical care,” Stryuk said.
About 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city — down from a pre-war population of about 100,000, he said.
Russian shelling killed four people in Sievierodonetsk over the past 24 hours, regional governor Serhiy Haidai wrote in a Telegram post Friday.
In Donetsk, the Donbas region’s other province, the Russia-backed rebels said Friday they took control of Lyman, a large railway hub north of two more key cities that remain under Ukrainian control.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged that “we lost Lyman” Thursday night. However, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson reported Friday that its soldiers
countered Russian attempts to push them completely out of the city.
Near the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, 10 people were killed and about 35 wounded in Russian missile strikes against a National Guard base, according to the head of the Dnipro territorial defense forces.
As Ukraine’s hopes of stopping the Russian advance faded, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded with Western nations to provide his country with more weapons.
“We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us, it’s the amount of heavy weapons they have. Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems, we won’t be able to push them back,” Kuleba said in a video posted Thursday night on Twitter.