After claiming victory in Mariupol, Russia continues offensive in Lugansk

After claiming victory in Mariupolin the south of the Donetsk region, Russia today continued its offensive to gain control of the entire Luhansk region, in the east Ukrainewhere it advances inch by inch despite the fierce Ukrainian resistance.

“The hard fate of the Lugansk region is not to allow the Russians to advance further,” the head of the Ukrainian regional administration, Sergei Gaidai, wrote on Telegram, reporting that fighting is taking place on the outskirts of Severodoneks.

SEVERODONETSK TARGET OF RUSSIAN ATTACKS

He added that this city is being destroyed by Russian forces in the same way that Mariupol was, where the last Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Azovstal steel mill surrendered this Friday after several weeks of siege.

Severodonetsk is one of the few towns in the Lugansk region that remain under the control of Ukrainian troops.

“At the moment about 10% of the Lugansk region is under the control of Ukraine. It cannot be said where the situation is more complicated, because the entire territory of the region is under fire. Everything, without exception”, declared Gaidái.

The focus of combat actions is in the north of the Luhansk region, on the line between the cities of Severdonetsk and Lisihansk, which according to military experts is the gateway to the north of the Donetsk region.

In the event that Russian troops break through the Ukrainian defenses in that sector, they could try to surround the important military group that Ukraine maintains in Kramatorsk, its main stronghold in the neighboring region.

However, Gaidai dismissed the statements made this Friday by the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, that the “liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic will conclude soon”, and assured that Russia fears a Ukrainian counteroffensive once the Ukrainian Army receive a sufficient amount of Western weaponry.

UKRAINE CLAIMS MORE WESTERN ARMS SHIPMENTS

“We need armor. I’m not going to say what armor we need concretely. I will be frank: we need all kinds,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today in kyiv at a joint press conference with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa.

The president said he hopes that the second virtual meeting of the military contact group for Ukraine, which will be held next Monday with the participation of defense ministers from more than 40 countries, will decide on the delivery to the Ukrainian Army of “American missile systems”. MLRS”.

The M270 MLRS is an armored, self-propelled multiple launcher, whose projectiles, depending on the type, can have a range of up to 300 kilometers.

According to Zelensky, this type of weaponry is key to expelling Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine.

RUSSIA TRIES TO STOP THE RESET OF THE UKRAINIAN ARMY

Hence, one of the tasks that Russia has set itself is to intercept shipments of Western military equipment arriving through Poland on Ukrainian territory.

This Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had destroyed with “Kalibr” cruise missiles an important consignment of western weapons destined for the Ukrainian forces fighting in eastern Ukraine, in the area known as Donbas.

According to the Russian military spokesman, Igor Konashénkov, the military cargo, coming from the United States and European countries, was intercepted and destroyed next to the Malin railway station, about 100 kilometers northwest of kyiv.

This Saturday, US President Joe Biden ratified the new legislative package of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine worth 40,000 million dollars, which is expected to increase the flow of weapons to the former Soviet republic.

RUSSIA PROHIBITS BIDEN FROM ENTRY INTO THE COUNTRY

Shortly after Washington reported the enactment of the aid package, Russia banned Biden and 962 other US citizens from entering the country in response to US Moscow sanctions for the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Biden is on the list, sorted alphabetically in Russian, at number 31, followed by his son Hunter.

Among the senior US officials sanctioned are, among others, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the Minister of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and the director of the CIA, William Burns.

Actor Morgan Freeman, who in 2017 recorded a video in which he accused Russia of plotting against the United States, was also banned from entering the country.

Source: Elcomercio

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