The battle for the Azot plant rages in Severodonetsk

23 people, mostly civilians, were injured after a Russian missile attack on a town in the western province of Ternopil in Ukraine Saturday night. Russia claimed its “Kalibr” missiles destroyed a large stockpile of Western-supplied weapons. The images and video, released by local authorities, show the charred remains of private cars and several damaged residential buildings. Most of the injured lived there, including a 12-year-old girl who had fled the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

Further east, a fire broke out on Sunday at the “Azot” chemical plant in Severodonetsk. Up to 800 local residents are hiding there from one of the fiercest bombing campaigns of this war by the Russians.. It is not yet clear if anyone was injured and if the fire has been put out. Local authorities say the plant is controlled by Ukrainian troops as heavy fighting rages in nearby streets. Russian troops have most of the half-destroyed city under control. The Ukrainian Army currently controls the industrial outskirts.

Two of the three bridges leading into the city across the Siverskyi Donetsk River have been destroyed by the Russians. They bomb the third to cut off the city from receiving resupply from Ukrainian controlled territory.

Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk are the only large cities in Luhansk Oblast still under Ukrainian control. The capture of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which together roughly correspond to the Donbas industrial region, has been the main objective of Russian troops in Ukraine after their failure to quickly subdue the Ukrainian resistance and capture its capital and other cities. important. Though the ukrainian army is suffering heavy casualtiesRussia has only been able to make very slow progress in Donbas.

Said Ismagilov, the chief mufti of Ukraine’s Muslims, joined the territorial defense unit in Kyiv on the first day of the Russian invasion. He has since been transferred east, where he drives an ambulance that takes wounded soldiers from the front lines to military hospitals. He told the Ukrainian radio “NV” that the Ukrainian soldiers are very clear that they have to fight and pay a high price “because Russia will not stop in the east of the country and will seek to conquer everything.” There is simply no other way but to continue defending your homeland. “We need the help of all civilized countries in the world but we understand that in the end everything is in our own hands.”

The German media claim that the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning a visit to Kyiv in June, together with the French and Italian leaders, Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi. Scholz’s visit, on the eve of the EU’s decision to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country, could mean a big step forward in relations between the countries. Many leaders of European countries, such as Pedro Sanchez or the presidents of Central European countries, have already visited Ukraine. Scholz previously indicated that he would only visit Kyiv if there was an important reason to do so, “not just to pose for the cameras.”

Germany has unequivocally condemned Russian aggression and has supported Ukraine financially. However, the two countries have not always seen eye to eye, with Ukraine feeling that Germany contributed to Putin’s current actions by failing to react more resolutely after Russia annexed Crimea and started the war in Donbas in 2014. from Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeieras well as the previous chancellor, Angela Merkel, supported the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that was to bypass Ukraine and thus undermine both its economy and its defense against Russia. Germany has also not handed over any of the heavy weapons it has so far considered giving to Ukraine, unlike France, which has sent its “Caesar” howitzers to Ukraine.

Prolonged war until October 2022

Ukraine, meanwhile, warns that Russia is poised for a protracted war in Ukraine and is seeking to increase the number of its troops there. The latest UK intelligence report indicates that some Russian brigades are beginning to deploy additional military units they are generally not fully staffed. This means that it can rely on new recruits or mobilized reserves to send to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Defense Minister, Olexiy Reznikovhe warns in his recent interview with “The Economist” that “the bureaucracy and pragmatism of the West proved to be much stronger than Western values”. He stressed that “every day of delay is measured in the blood of Ukrainians.”