প্রকাশ: 22/06/2022
Ukrainian and
Russian forces remained entrenched in eastern Ukrainian battlegrounds going
into Wednesday, a day of commemoration in both countries to mark the
anniversary of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Fighting in the months-long war has favoured Russia in
recent weeks because of its huge edge in artillery firepower, a fact Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged in a late Tuesday night address.
"Thanks to tactical manoeuvres the Ukrainian army is
strengthening its defences in the Luhansk region," he said. "That is
really the toughest spot. The occupiers are also pressing strongly in the
direction of Donetsk."
Luhansk and Donetsk provinces combined are known as the
Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces
since 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
"And just as actively as we are fighting for a positive
decision by the European Union on Ukraine's candidate status, we are also
fighting every day for modern weaponry for our country. We don't let up for a
single day," Zelenskiy said, urging those nations supporting his country
to speed up arms deliveries.
In a symbolic decision, Ukraine is set to become an official
candidate for European Union membership on Thursday, EU diplomats said.
Russia's failure to make a major breakthrough so far since
invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 means time is on the side of Ukrainians, according
to some military analysts.
"It's a heavyweight boxing match. In 2 months of
fighting, there has not yet been a knockout blow. It will come, as RU forces
become more depleted," retired U.S. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, a
former commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe, wrote on Twitter.
COMMEMORATION
June 22 is a significant date in Russia - the "Day of
Remembrance and Sorrow" - marking when Hitler's Nazi Germany forces
invaded the Soviet Union in World War Two. It is also commemorated in Ukraine
and neighbouring Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. The war there lasted
1,418 days from June 22, 1941, and historians estimate around 27 million Soviet
soldiers and civilians died.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched what he calls
a "special military operation" in Ukraine to root out Nazis, is due
to lay flowers to honour the dead.
The Ukrainian government and its Western backers say Putin
has used a false pretext to wage an unprovoked war of aggression on its
neighbour.
To mark the anniversary, the Russian defence ministry on
Wednesday released documents dating back to the start of World War Two purporting
to show Germany intended to claim the Soviet army was bombing churches and
cemeteries to justify its invasion.
"Just as nowadays, in 1941, the Nazis prepared
provocations in advance to discredit our state," Russia's defence ministry
said.
Russian forces and separatists in eastern Ukraine made
further advances on Tuesday, pushing towards the city of Lysychansk, the
Ukrainian forces' main bastion in the Donbas.
In some of the bloodiest fighting seen in Europe since World
War Two, Russia has made slow progress in the Donbas since April in a conflict
that has cost thousands of soldiers' lives on both sides.
Some of the fighting has spanned the Siverskyi Donets river
that curls through the Donbas, with Russian forces mainly on the east bank and
Ukrainian forces mainly on the west.
But Ukrainian troops - and an estimated 500 civilians - are
reportedly still holding out at a chemical plant in the east bank city of
Sievierodonetsk, despite weeks of heavy bombardment.
The governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Gaidai, confirmed
that Toshkivka, a settlement on the west bank further south, was now controlled
by Russian forces.
Oleskiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy said Russian
forces had also taken the village of Metyolkine and could cut off Lysychansk
and Sievierodonetsk from Ukrainian-held territory.
"The threat of a tactical Russian victory is there, but
they haven't done it yet," he said in a video posted online.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the battlefield
accounts.
In retaliation for Western sanctions, Russia has begun
pumping reduced volumes of gas to Europe via Ukraine.
European Union states from the Baltic Sea in the north to
the Adriatic in the south have outlined measures to cope with a supply crisis
after the invasion put energy at the heart of an economic battle between Moscow
and the West.
Russia warned Lithuania on Tuesday it would face measures of
a "serious negative impact" for blocking some shipments by rail to
Moscow's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.
Fellow Baltic nation Estonia expressed solidarity with
Lithuania and summoned the Russian ambassador on Tuesday to protest an
"extremely serious" violation of its airspace by a Russian
helicopter.
- Reuters
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