KYIV —
Russia on Tuesday reported its forces
had taken full control of residential neighborhoods in
Ukraine’s flashpoint
city of Severodonetsk, after Kyiv said its troops were fighting on in the
eastern hub despite being outnumbered.
اضافة اعلان
“The residential areas of the city of Severodonetsk
have been fully liberated,”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told a
defense ministry meeting.
The Russian army was still seeking to establish
control over the city’s “industrial zone and the nearest settlements”, he
added, amid conflicting reports of who is in control of what.
Moscow has been pushing for control of the strategic
industrial hub as part of its bid to conquer a vast swathe of eastern Ukraine
but
Kyiv’s forces have so far managed to hold out,
“Our heroes are holding their positions in
Severodonetsk. Fierce street fights continue in the city,”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late Monday.
Zelensky warned Ukrainian forces in the key city
were outnumbered and the Russians “are stronger”. He was speaking to
journalists after visiting frontline positions in Lysychansk, across the river
from Severodonetsk.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions
forced to flee their homes since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian
troops into Ukraine on February 24.
After being repelled from other parts of the country,
including Kyiv, Russia has concentrated its assault on the eastern Donbas
region and had been making slow but steady progress.
Severodonetsk — the largest city still in Ukrainian
hands in the Lugansk region of the Donbas — has been the focal point in recent
weeks.
‘General killed’
The leader of Ukraine’s
pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk,
Denis Pushilin, on Tuesday confirmed the
death of another Russian general in the fighting.
Pushilin expressed on Telegram his “sincere
condolences to the family and friends” of Maj. Gen. Roman Kutuzov, “who showed
by example how to serve the fatherland”.
Ukraine’s forces have claimed to have killed several
of Russia’s top brass but their exact number is not known as
Moscow is
tight-lipped on losses.
Defense Minister Shoigu said Russia had completed
demining of the eastern port city of Mariupol, the second busiest in Ukraine
before the conflict.
“It is operating as normal and has accepted the
first cargo ships,” Shoigu said.
With fighting raging in the east of Ukraine, Kyiv
hit out at the UN’s nuclear watchdog for trying to visit
Europe’s largest
nuclear reactor in the south of the country while it is under Russian
occupation.
The head of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on Monday his agency was preparing an expert
mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Grossi said on Twitter the visit was arranged after
Ukraine had “requested” it.
But Ukraine’s nuclear agency, Energoatom on Tuesday
accused Grossi of lying and said it did not greenlight the trip.
“The visit to the plant will only become possible
when Ukraine takes back control of the site,” Energoatom wrote on Telegram.
“We consider this declaration a new attempt to gain
access to the Zaporizhzhia power plant to legitimize the presence of the
occupiers and approve their actions.”
Russian forces took control of the plant at the
beginning of March and Moscow has threatened to cut Ukraine off from
Zaporizhzhia unless Kyiv pays Moscow for the electricity produced.
Grain exports blocked
In 2021 — well before
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the plant represented 20 percent of Ukraine’s
annual electricity production and nearly half of all nuclear power produced in
Ukraine.
The Russian invasion, combined with supply chain
snarls and climate change, has triggered stark warnings of global food
shortages.
Moscow has blockaded the key black sea port of
Odessa, and Zelensky said Ukraine had up to 25 million tonnes of grain that
could not be exported.
“In the autumn that could be 70 to 75 million tonnes,”
said the president, whose country was the world’s fourth biggest grain exporter
before the war.
In Washington,
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
said that reports Russia had stolen grain from Ukraine for export are
“credible”.
At a meeting of the UN Security Council, the US and
Europe urged Russia to stop alleged sexual violence by its army and proxies in
Ukraine, allegations that Moscow denounced as “lies”.
With the West seeking to tighten sanction screws on
Russian oligarchs, the US Justice Department on Tuesday ordered the seizure of
two aircraft owned by former
Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
The US says the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and
Gulfstream G650ER executive jet were flown into Russian territory earlier this
year in violation of US export controls.
And in Fiji, a court ruled a $300-million superyacht
linked by the US to sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov could be
handed over to US authorities.
The Amadea, which boasts a helipad, pool, jacuzzi
and “winter garden”, was impounded in Fiji in April at Washington’s request.
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