Ukrainian troops have recaptured a portion of the city of Severodonetsk – a main focus of the Russian offensive and the site of heavy fighting, a Ukrainian governor has said.
Serhiy Hayday, governor of Luhansk region, said Ukrainian forces have retaken 20% of the territory they had lost in the factory city as the conflict in the country’s east rages on.
He said the gains meant it was “not realistic” that the city would fall in the next two weeks even though Russian reinforcements were being deployed.
He added that Russian forces were blowing up bridges across the Siverskyi Donets river to prevent Ukraine bringing in military reinforcements and delivering aid to civilians in Sievierodonetsk.
Russia is close to capturing all of Luhansk, one of two southern Ukrainian regions that make up the swathe of land known as the Donbas.
However Moscow’s forces have been plagued by setbacks elsewhere in the country since its invasion.
The war has now passed 100 days, with fighting mostly focused in the south and east of the Ukraine after Kremlin forces withdrew from Kyiv following their failure to capture the capital city.
Read more: Children with toy guns manning checkpoints, while body hunters search for dead Russian soldiers
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Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says ‘victory will be ours’ as war with Russia enters its 100th day
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President Zelenskyy vows “victory will be ours” as he stands with government officials in KyivRussian Defence Minister claims Kremlin forces will “accelerate” invasionUkrainian soldiers recapture portion of Severodonetsk, official saysWar in Ukraine passes 100 days amid fierce resistance from defendersUkrainian officials counting on missile systems from US and UK to swing the war in their favourUK MoD: Moscow’s combined air and artillery strikes “key factor” in Donbas successes
UK intelligence: Russia’s combined air and artillery strikes making a difference
In its latest assessment of the conflict, UK intelligence says the combined use of air and artillery strikes in the Donbas has been a key factor in Russia’s recent tactical successes in the region.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Moscow’s inability to supress or destroy Ukrainian strategic air defences in the early days of the war limited its ability to proe tactical air support, contributing to its failure to capture Kyiv.
It added: “With its operational focus switching to the Donbas, Russia has been able to increase its employment of tactical air to support its creeping advance, combining airstrikes and massed artillery fires to bring its overwhelming firepower to bear.
“The combined use of air and artillery strikes has been a key factor in Russia’s recent tactical successes in the region.”
Macron criticised for saying Russia must not be humiliated
French President Emmanuel Macron said it is vital that Russia is not humiliated so that when the fighting stops in Ukraine a diplomatic solution can be found, adding that he believed Paris would play a mediating role to end the conflict.
The French leader’s stance has been repeatedly criticised by some eastern and Baltic partners in Europe.
In an apparent response, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter: “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it.
“Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.”
Russia to “accelerate” military operation, defence minister claims
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that its forces shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane carrying weapons and munitions near the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Meanwhile, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that Russian forces will “accelerate” the “special military operation” in Ukraine in a meeting with Chechen Leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the Institute for War (ISW) reports.
However the US-based think tank, which analyses the ongoing military situation on the ground, said Russian forces were “unlikely to be able to do so” despite the minister’s claim.
Russian forces had been capturing more and more of Severodonetsk in recent days, so the Ukrainian recapture of a part of the city is notable should the claims be true.
Governor Hayday added: “As soon as we have enough Western long-range weapons, we will push their artillery away from our positions.
“And then, believe me, the Russian infantry, they will just run,” he added.
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Workers inspect a damaged wood warehouse after a strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the outskirts of Kharkiv
Belarus extends offer over blockaded Ukrainian grain stocks
Ukrainian officials are counting on advanced missile systems that the United States and Britain recently pledged to swing the war in their favour, and Ukrainian troops have already begun training on them.
Two people died and at least two were injured in Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Friday, Ukraine’s Interfax reported.
In the south of the country, there remain concerns over millions of tons of Ukrainian grain languishing in silos amid claims that Russian ships are blockading Black Sea ports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Friday that Moscow was preventing Ukrainian ports from exporting grain, blaming rising global food prices on the West.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Poland is scouring Europe for train cars and containers in the hope of easing the flow of grain out of Ukraine.
There have been fears that the ongoing conflict will spark a global food crisis as Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s biggest exporters of grain.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko – a key Kremlin ally – says he is ready to allow the transit of Ukraine’s grain to Baltic Sea ports via Belarus if it is allowed to ship Belarusian goods from these ports, it has been reported.
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Putin denied on Friday that Moscow was preventing Ukrainian ports from exporting grain. Pic: AP
Azovstal steelworks flag delivered to Kyiv museum
Meanwhile, in occupied Kherson, local resistance has pro-Russian officials moving with a lot of security, wearing armoured vests, the Ukrainian Navy claims.
In the capital Kyiv, a flag that once flew over the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol has been handed over to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry said.
Scratched, and sporting what could be bullet holes, the blue and yellow flag is thought to have fluttered above the industrial complex where the last remnants of resistance in the besieged city held out against Russian forces for weeks.
Wives of defenders of the city – many of whom are being held as prisoners of war in Russian-controlled areas – were present for the ceremony.
