Russian forces were seeking to swallow up the last remaining
Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, pressing their momentum
after taking full control Saturday of the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk and
the chemical plant where hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians had been
holed up.
Russia also launched dozens of missiles on several areas
across the country far from the heart of the eastern battles. Some of the
missiles were fired from Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus
for the first time, Ukraine's air command said.
The bombardment preceded a meeting between Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, during which
Putin announced that Russia planned to supply Belarus with the Iskander-M
missile system.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said
late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now control
Sievierodonetsk and the villages surrounding it. He said the attempt by
Ukrainian forces to turn the Azot plant into a “stubborn center of resistance”
had been thwarted.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk province, said
Friday that Ukrainian troops were retreating from Sievierodonetsk after weeks
of bombardment and house-to-house fighting. He confirmed Saturday that the city
had fallen to Russian and separatist fighters, who he said were now trying to
blockade Lysychansk from the south. The city lies across the river just to the
west of Sievierodonetsk.
Capturing Lysychansk would give Russian forces control of
every major settlement in the province, a significant step toward Russia’s aim
of capturing the entire Donbas. The Russians and separatists control about half
of Donetsk, the second province in the Donbas.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the
separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying Russian troops and separatist
fighters had entered Lysychansk and that fighting was taking place in the heart
of the city. There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Ukrainian
side.
Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk have been the focal point of
a Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the
Ukrainian military defending it — the most capable and battle-hardened segment
of the country’s armed forces.
Russian bombardment has reduced most of Sievierodonetsk to
rubble and cut its population from 100,000 to 10,000. The last remaining
Ukrainian troops were holed up in underground shelters in the huge Azot
chemical plant, along with hundreds of civilians. A separatist representative,
Ivan Filiponenko, said earlier Saturday that its forces evacuated 800 civilians
from the plant during the night, Interfax reported.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said some of the
troops were heading for Lysychansk. But Russian moves to cut off Lysychansk
will give those retreating troops little respite.
Some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the west, four Russian
cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea hit a “military object” in Yaroviv,
Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said. He did not give further details
of the target, but Yaroviv has a sizable military base used for training
fighters, including foreigners who have volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
Russian missiles struck the Yaroviv base in March, killing
35 people. The Lviv region, although far from the front lines, has come under
fire at various points in the the war as Russia's military worked to destroy
fuel storage sites.
About 30 Russian missiles were fired on the Zhytomyr region
in central Ukraine on Saturday morning, killing one Ukrainian soldier, regional
governor Vitaliy Buchenko said. He said all of the strikes were aimed at
military targets.
In the northwest, two missiles hit a service station and
auto repair center in Sarny, killing three people and wounding four, the Rivne
regional governor, Vitaliy Koval, said. He posted a picture of the destruction.
Sarny is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the border with
Belarus.
In southern Ukraine along the Black Sea coast, nine missiles
fired from Crimea hit the port city of Mykolaiv, the Ukrainian military said.
In the north, about 20 missiles were fired from Belarus into
the Chernihiv region, the Ukrainian military said.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency said the Russian
bombers' use of Belarusian airspace for the first time for Saturday's attack
was “directly connected to attempts by the Kremlin to drag Belarus into the
war.”
Belarus hosts Russian military units and was used as a
staging ground before Russia invaded Ukraine, but its own troops have not
crossed the border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly
video address that as a war that Moscow expected to last five days moved into
its fifth month, Russia “felt compelled to stage such a missile show."
He said the war was at a difficult stage, “when we know that
the enemy will not succeed, when we understand that we can defend our country,
but we don’t know how long it will take, how many more attacks, losses and
efforts there will be before we can see that victory is already on our
horizon.”
During his meeting in St. Petersburg with Lukashenko, Putin
told him the Iskander-M missile systems would be arriving in the coming months.
He noted that they can fire either ballistic or cruise missiles and carry
nuclear as well as conventional warheads. Russia has launched several Iskander
missiles into Ukraine during the war.
Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraine’s
capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian
forces have shifted their focus to the Donbas, where the Ukrainian forces have
fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on
condition of anonymity, on Friday called the Ukrainians’ withdrawal from
Sievierodonetsk a “tactical retrograde” to consolidate forces into positions
where they can better defend themselves. The move will reinforce Ukraine’s
efforts to keep Russian forces pinned down in a small area, the official said.
After repeated Ukrainian requests to its Western allies for
heavier weaponry to counter Russia’s edge in firepower, four medium-range American
rocket launchers arrived this week, with four more on the way.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry released a video Saturday
showing the first use of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS,
in Ukraine. The video gave no location or indication of the targets. The
rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).
The senior U.S. defense official said Friday that more
Ukrainian forces are training outside Ukraine to use the HIMARS and are
expected back in their country with the weapons by mid-July. Also to be sent
are 18 U.S. coastal and river patrol boats.
The official said there is no evidence Russia has
intercepted any of the steady flow of weapons into Ukraine from the U.S. and
other nations. Russia has repeatedly threatened to strike, or actually claimed
to have hit, such shipments.
– AP/UNB
Ukraine Crisis Russian Missile
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.
The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
It was co-signed by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, who gave unspecified "support" to the new round of strikes, the second this month and fourth since the rebels began their attacks on ships in the region.
"The Huthis' now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response," the statement said.
Huthi-run Al-Masirah television reported "a series of raids on the capital Sanaa," while AFP correspondents in the rebel-controlled city in western Yemen said they heard several loud bangs.
"The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways," Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement after the strikes.
"We will continue to make clear to the Huthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage, and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries."
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree was defiant, vowing in a social media statement that the rebels would "confront the American-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arab Seas."
The UK Ministry of Defence said four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s targeted "several very long-range drones, used by the Houthis for both reconnaissance and attack missions," on Saturday, at a site north-east of Sanaa.
Saturday's operation comes after several merchant vessels were struck this week in the region, including the fertilizer-filled Rubymar, whose crew had to abandon ship after it was hit Sunday and began taking on water.
Apart from the joint operations with Britain, the United States has also carried out unilateral strikes against Huthi positions and weaponry in Yemen, and downed dozens of missiles and drones in the Red Sea.
- Anti-ship missile downed -
Earlier on Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that an American Navy ship had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile "launched into the Gulf of Aden from Iranian-backed Huthi controlled areas of Yemen."
The missile "was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a US-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker," CENTCOM said on X, formerly Twitter.
US forces on Friday also shot down three attack drones near commercial ships in the Red Sea and destroyed seven anti-ship cruise missiles on land, CENTCOM said.
The Huthis say they are targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.
Following previous US and UK strikes, the Huthis declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
The Huthis will "persist in upholding their religious, moral and humanitarian duties towards the Palestinian people, and their military operations will not stop unless the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," military spokesman Saree said.
Anger over Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza -- which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 -- has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Comment
Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.
Global powers trying to navigate a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far come up short, but a US envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday to try to secure a truce deal.
International concern has spiralled over the high civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel.
More than four months of relentless fighting and air strikes have flattened much of the Hamas-run coastal territory, pushing its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the UN.
International concern has in recent weeks centred on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people forced to flee their homes elsewhere in the territory are now living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents.
The last city untouched by Israeli ground troops, Rafah also serves as the main entry point via neighbouring Egypt for desperately needed relief supplies.
Israel has warned it will expand its ground operations into Rafah if Hamas does not free the remaining hostages held in Gaza by next month's start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.
- 'My daughter' -
The war started when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages -- 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,313 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.
War cabinet member Benny Gantz said Israel's operation in Rafah would begin "after the evacuation of the population", although his government has not offered any details on where civilians would be evacuated to.
In the early hours of Thursday, AFP reporters heard multiple air strikes on Rafah, particularly in the Al-Shaboura neighbourhood.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said early Thursday that 99 people had been killed around Gaza during the night, most of them women, children and elderly people.
Abdel Rahman Mohamed Jumaa said he lost his family in recent strikes on Rafah.
"I found my wife lying in the street," he told AFP. "Then I saw a man carrying a girl and I ran towards him and.... picked her up, realising she was really my daughter."
He was holding a small shrouded corpse in his arms.
- 'Possibility of progress' -
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was expected to arrive in Israel Thursday -- his second stop in the region after Egypt as part of US efforts to advance a hostage deal and broker a truce.
Hamas's chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo for talks as well, according to the group.
Israel's Gantz said there were efforts to "promote a new plan for the return of the hostages".
"We are seeing the first signs that indicate the possibility of progress in this direction."
Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesman, said Washington was hoping for an "agreement that secures a temporary ceasefire where we can get the hostages out and get humanitarian assistance", but declined to give details on ongoing negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the army will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the remaining hostages.
Israel's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed a proposal by Netanyahu to oppose any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The vote came days after the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden's administration and a small group of Arab nations were working out a comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
It included a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the report said.
Separately, a report by an Israeli group that fights sexual violence said Hamas's October 7 attack also involved systematic sexual assaults on civilians, based on witness testimonies, public and classified information, and interviews.
The report came the same week UN rights experts called for an independent probe into alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinian women and girls -- which Israel rejected as "despicable and unfounded claims".
Israeli officials have repeatedly alleged the militants committed violent sexual assaults during the attack -- something Hamas has denied.
- 'Waiting for death' -
Combat and chaos have stalled sporadic aid deliveries for civilians in Gaza, while in Khan Yunis -- a city just north of Rafah -- medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said an Israeli tank had fired on a house sheltering their employees and families.
Two relatives of MSF staff were killed and six others injured, it said, condemning the strike in the "strongest possible terms".
When contacted by AFP about the incident, the Israeli army said its forces had "fired at a building that was identified as a building where terror activity is occurring", adding that it "regrets" harm to civilians.
In the same town, the Palestinian Red Crescent said another hospital was also hit by "artillery shelling".
Israel has repeatedly said Hamas militants use civilian infrastructure including hospitals as operational bases -- claims that Hamas has denied.
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies.
"We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
The meeting was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, the conference venue, here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud briefed newsmen about the outcome of the meeting upon its completion.
The Foreign Minister said the Bangladesh Premier and Jaishankar attached importance to doing business between the two friendly countries through their own currencies to reduce dependency on other currencies like the US dollar.
He said Bangladesh and India have excellent bilateral relations and it has elevated to another height under the leadership of the prime ministers of the two countries.
"The relations between the countries are getting stronger day by day," he said, adding that the two leaders discussed the issues during the meeting.
Quoting Jaishankar, Hasan said, "Our relations will further be closer in the days ahead."
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.
The meeting between the two leaders was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Hasan also said that they also discussed how the attacks on innocent men and women in Gaza can be stopped.
The Premier reminded all that war can't bring wellbeing for any one.
"Others can be benefitted from the war. But the war cannot bring welfare for the countries involved in war and their people have to be affected by the war," said Sheikh Hasina.
In this connection, the Prime Minister recollected her memories about the sufferings of the countrymen and she herself faced during the Great War of Liberation in 1971.
She recalled her inhuman sufferings and the birth of her only son Sajeeb Wazed Joy under the captivity of the Pakistani occupation forces during the War.
"Bangladesh's foreign policy - 'Friendship to all, malice to none’ - prominently came up in the discussion between Prime Minister and Zelenskyy," the foreign minister said.
Replying to a query, Hasan said the friendly relations between Bangladesh and Russia which got foundation during the Liberation war , will not hamper at all.
"Our relationship with Russia is very wonderful. Russia stood beside us during the Liberation War and played a pivotal role in rebuilding Bangladesh after the war," he said.
He said they only discussed how to stop the war.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels. The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies. "We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here. "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.