“Following joint actions by militia units of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian armed forces, the city of Liman has been fully liberated from Ukrainian nationalists,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky acknowledged in a video that “the situation in Donbas is very, very difficult.”
Zelensky assured that “if the occupiers think that Liman and Severodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong.” “Donbas will be Ukrainian,” he reiterated.
A police chief of the pro-Russian separatists in Lugansk, quoted by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, said that “Severodonetsk is currently surrounded” and Ukrainian forces are trapped.
But the governor of Lugansk, Sergei Gaidai, assured by Telegram that it is a mistake to say that the region will fall under “total control of the Russian enemy” in “one, two or three days”.
“Most likely they won’t” take it, but “perhaps to avoid being surrounded, there could be an order for our troops to withdraw,” he admitted.
After the unsuccessful offensive on kyiv and Kharkov (northeast) at the beginning of the war launched by Russia on February 24, Russian forces concentrated in eastern Ukraine to control the Donbas mining area, which since 2014 has been partially in Russian hands. pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow.
Meanwhile, in a show of power, the Russian Army announced that it had carried out another successful test of the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, from the frigate “Admiral Gorshkov” in the Barents Sea, to a target located 1,000 kilometers away, in the waters of the White Sea, in the Arctic.
France and Germany urge Putin to negotiate
At the diplomatic level, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to start “direct and serious negotiations” with his Ukrainian counterpart.
In a telephone conversation they also asked him to release the 2,500 Ukrainian fighters who barricaded themselves in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol (south), and were taken prisoner by the Russians.
The war in Ukraine, which is an agricultural power, has raised the specter of a food crisis, since the country cannot export its cereals due to the blockade of its ports.
Putin proposed this week to help “overcome the food crisis” on the condition that sanctions against Moscow are lifted first, prompting allegations of blackmail.
But this Saturday, the Russian president assured that he will allow the export of cereals from Ukraine, especially by sea.
Putin warns of “destabilization”
kyiv again called for more Western weapons.
“Some allies are avoiding giving the necessary weapons for fear of escalation. Escalation? Russia is already using the heaviest non-nuclear weapons, burning people alive. Maybe it’s time … to give us” multiple rocket launchers, he said. on Twitter the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mijailo Podoliak.
US media cited that possibility, but Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not confirm it.
“We remain committed to helping them win on the battlefield,” he said.