US agrees to send advanced rockets to Ukraine
Russia in almost complete control of Sievierodonetsk
KYIV (Reuters) — Russian troops fought to take complete control of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday as the United States said it will provide Ukraine with advanced rockets to help it force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington would provide Ukraine with more advanced rocket systems and munitions so it can “more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield.”
“We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times on Tuesday.
A senior Biden administration official said weaponry provided would include the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which Ukraine’s armed forces chief said a month ago was “crucial” to counter Russian missile attacks.
Addressing concerns the provision of such weapons could draw the United States into a direct conflict with Russia, senior administration officials said Kyiv gave “assurances” the missiles would not be used to strike inside Russia.
“These systems will be used by the
Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used on targets in Russian territory,” the U.S. official told reporters.
The latest U.S. pledge of weapons for Ukraine — on top of billions of dollars worth of equipment already provided including anti-aircraft missiles and drones — came as Russia pressed its assault to seize the eastern Donbas region, having abandoned its earlier thrust toward Kyiv from the north.
Russian troops have now taken control of most of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk in
Luhansk, one of two provinces in the Donbas, regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai on Tuesday.
Nearly all critical infrastructure in Sievierodonetsk had been destroyed and 60 percent of residential property damaged beyond repair, he added. Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver aid or evacuate people.
A Russian victory in Sievierodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk across the Siverskyi Donets river would bring full control of Luhansk, one of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
A pro-Moscow separatist leader said Russian proxies had advanced slower than expected to “maintain the city’s infrastructure” and exercise caution around its chemical factories.
“We can say already that a third of Sievierodonetsk is already under our control,” Russia’s TASS state news agency quoted Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People’s Republic, as saying.
Gaidai warned Sievierodonetsk residents not to leave bomb shelters due to what he said was a Russian air strike on a nitric acid tank.
The Luhansk People’s Republic’s police force said Ukraine’s forces had damaged it. Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists traded accusations over a similar incident in April.
Russia hits acid tank at chemical plant
KYIV (AFP) — Russian forces struck a tank containing nitric acid at a chemical plant in Ukraine’s eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, the local governor said Tuesday, calling on people to stay in shelters.
An air strike by Moscow forces “hit a tank with nitric acid at a chemical plant”, the governor of the Luhansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said on Telegram.
“Nitric acid is dangerous if inhaled, swallowed and in contact with skin,” he added. “Do not come out of shelters!” Gaiday said.
He asked remaining residents in the city — which has seen fierce battles for days — to “prepare protective face masks impregnated with soda solution.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s air strike at a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk was “just crazy.”
But it is “no longer surprising that for the Russian military, for Russian commanders, for Russian soldiers, any madness is absolutely acceptable,” Zelenskyy said in an evening video address on Telegram.
Pro-Moscow separatist authorities said the tank had “exploded” on territory controlled by Ukrainian forces.