Ukraine calls for arms as fight for Luhansk at ‘fearful climax’

Russia captures extra villages south of Severodonetsk whereas all of Lysychansk is now throughout the attain of Russian fireplace.

Ukrainian servicemen within the metropolis of Severodonetsk [Oleksandr Ratushniak/EPA]

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated Moscow’s huge air and artillery assaults are geared toward destroying all the Donbas area, urging Ukraine’s allies to speed up the cargo of heavy weapons to match Russia on the battlefield.

The combat for the dual cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in Ukraine’s Luhansk area is “getting into a kind of fearsome climax”, stated Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Zelenskyy. Russia is searching for to seize Luhansk and Donetsk, which make up the Donbas area – the nation’s industrial heartland.

“We should free our land and obtain victory, however extra shortly, much more shortly,” Zelenskyy stated in a video handle launched early on Thursday, reiterating Ukrainian calls for for bigger and sooner weapons.

“There have been huge air and artillery strikes in Donbas. The occupier’s objective right here is unchanged, they need to destroy all the Donbas step-by-step,” he stated.

“This is the reason we repeatedly emphasise the acceleration of arm[s] deliveries to Ukraine. What's shortly wanted is parity on the battlefield as a way to halt this diabolical armada and push it past Ukraine’s borders.”

Ukrainian forces had been defending Severodonetsk – the place lots of of civilians are believed to be trapped in a chemical plant – and the close by settlements of Zolote and Vovchoyrovka, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai stated on Thursday, however added Russia had captured Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka to the south.

“The state of affairs is extraordinarily tough – the Russians collected all of the reserves and despatched all this to the assault on Severodonetsk,” Haidai stated in his each day briefing. “The Russians are merely overlaying total neighbourhoods with heavy fireplace,” he added in a later publish on his Telegram channel.

Moscow claimed that Ukrainian forces had been surrounded and trapped in Severodonetsk.

An image taken on June 21, 2022 from the city of Lysychansk, reveals a big plume of smoke rising on the horizon, behind the city of Severodonetsk [Anatolii Stepanov/AFP]

On Lysychansk, Haidai stated it was “very harmful within the metropolis” as all of it was inside attain of Russian fireplace.

“With a view to keep away from encirclement, our command may order that the troops retreat to new positions. There could also be a regrouping after final evening,” he added.

The TASS information company cited Russian-backed separatists as saying Lysychansk was now surrounded and minimize off from provides after a street connecting the town to the city of Sieviersk was taken.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence stated Russian forces “have extremely probably superior” greater than 5km (3.11 miles) in direction of the southern approaches of Lysychansk since June 19.

“Some Ukrainian models have withdrawn, most likely to keep away from being encircled,” it stated on Twitter. “Russian forces are placing the Lysychansk-[Severodonetsk] pocket beneath growing stress with this creeping advance … Nevertheless, its efforts to attain a deeper encirclement to take western Donetsk Oblast stay stalled,” the ministry added.

Newest Defence Intelligence replace on the state of affairs in Ukraine – 23 June 2022

Discover out extra concerning the UK authorities's response: https://t.co/IMlKAZ5Kay

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/El9tqwfNba

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 23, 2022

Russia renews shelling of Kharkiv

Because the fierce battle of attrition grinds on throughout the Donbas, Russian forces resumed pounding Ukraine’s second-biggest metropolis Kharkiv near the Russian border.

The Russian strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday on Kharkiv had been the worst for weeks in an space the place regular life had been returning since Ukraine pushed Moscow’s forces again final month.

Kyiv characterised the strikes, which reportedly killed at the very least 20 folks, as a bid to drive Ukraine to tug property from the first battlefields throughout the Donbas to protect civilians.

“There isn’t any let up throughout the shelling of civilians by the Russian occupiers,” Oleh Synehubov, governor of Kharkiv space, wrote on Telegram.

“That is proof that we will’t rely on the equivalent state of affairs as in Chernihiv or Kyiv, with Russian forces withdrawing beneath pressure.”

Workers of the Liubotinsky Lyceum of Railway Transport and native residents dismantle the ruins of an administrative constructing, because of the explosion of a Russian rocket, in Lyubotyn, Kharkiv area [Sergey Bobok/AFP]