Battle rages for Ukrainian region of Donbas

RUSKA LOZOVA, Ukraine, (Reuters) - Russia pummelled positions in the east of Ukraine yesterday, its defence ministry said, as it sought to encircle Ukrainian forces in the battle for Donbas and fend off a counteroffensive around the strategic Russian-controlled city of Izium.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secretary general, meanwhile, told a meeting in Germany that Ukraine could win the war, calling for more military support and fasttrack approval of Finland and Sweden’s expected bids to join the alliance.

Ukraine has scored a series of successes since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, forcing Russia’s commanders to abandon an advance on the capital Kyiv before making rapid gains to drive them from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city.

Moscow’s invasion, which it calls a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists, has jolted European security. Kyiv and its Western allies say the fascism assertion is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression.

The president of Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (800mile) border with Russia, yesterday confirmed his country would apply to join NATO, a major policy shift prompted by Russia’s invasion. Sweden’s ruling party followed suit.

Since mid-April, Russian forces have focused much of their firepower on trying to capture two eastern provinces known as the Donbas after failing to take Kyiv.

An assessment by British military intelligence said Russia had lost about a third of the ground combat force deployed in February. Its Donbas offensive had fallen “significantly behind schedule” and was unlikely to make rapid advances during the coming 30 days, the assessment said.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine is not going as Moscow had planned,” NATO SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg said.

Ukraine received a morale boost with victory in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, a triumph seen as sign of the strength of popular support for Ukraine across Europe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the win, but said the situation in Donbas remained very difficult and Russian forces were still trying to salvage some kind of victory in a region riven by conflict since 2014.

Still, he vowed in his nightly address on Sunday that Russia’s strikes Sunday on Lviv and elsewhere would only end with any surviving Russian soldiers “taking this evil with them back to Russia.”

Russia said on Sunday it had struck Ukrainian positions in the east with missiles, targeting command centres and arsenals as its forces seek to surround Ukrainian units between Izium and Donetsk.

Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task

Force said its troops had repelled 17 attacks on Sunday and destroyed 11 pieces of Russian equipment. The command of Ukraine’s air force, in a statement on Facebook, said Ukrainian forces downed two helicopters, two cruise missiles, and seven drones. .

Russia continued to target civilian areas along the entire front line in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, firing at 23 villages and towns, the task force added.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm the reports.

Izium straddles the Donets river, about 120 km (75 miles) from Kharkiv on the main highway heading southeast.

If Ukraine can sustain pressure on Izium and Russian supply lines, that will make it harder for Moscow to encircle battle-hardened Ukrainian troops on the eastern front in the Donbas.

“The hottest spot remains the Izium direction,” Ukrainian regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said in comments aired on social media. “Our armed forces have switched to a counteroffensive there. The enemy is retreating on some fronts.”

In some areas, Russian units are now operating at less than 20% strength, Ukrainian Armed Forces staff said.

Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, told Ukrainian TV that forces could move on the border in the next few days to press Russian troops in northeastern Kharkiv.