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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged on Sunday that Kyiv’s forces had withdrawn from the strategic metropolis within the jap Donbas area after a grinding Russian assault. However he vowed to regain management over the world with the assistance of long-range Western weapons.
Moscow mentioned the seize of Lysychansk meant it had “liberated” the Luhansk area, lower than per week after taking neighbouring Sievierdonetsk.
Lysychansk was the final Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk, a key goal for Russia. Its seize will present Moscow’s troops with a stronger base from which to press their advance within the Donbas — the outdated industrial area of mines and factories that Vladimir Putin is bent on capturing.
The battlefield focus now shifts to the neighbouring Donetsk area, the place Kyiv nonetheless controls swathes of territory.
Ukraine is not going to ‘give something up’, says Zelenskyy
In his nightly tackle on Sunday night, Zelenskyy acknowledged the withdrawal, however was adamant Ukraine would by no means “give something up”.
“We’ll return, because of our techniques, because of the rise within the provide of contemporary weapons,” he mentioned.
The Ukrainian president mentioned Russia was concentrating its firepower on the Donbas entrance, however Ukraine would hit again with long-range weapons such because the US-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers.
“The truth that we shield the lives of our troopers, our individuals, performs an equally essential position. We’ll rebuild the partitions, we’ll win again the land, and folks have to be protected above all else,” he mentioned.
Zelenskyy insisted that Kyiv’s forces had been “making progress” elsewhere, within the areas round Kharkiv within the north-east, and Kherson within the south. “The day will come after we will say the identical factor concerning the Donbas”, he added.
Since abandoning its assault on the capital Kyiv, Russia has targeted its army operation on the commercial Donbas heartland that contains the Luhansk and Donetsk areas, the place Moscow-backed separatist proxies have been preventing Ukraine since 2014.
Moscow mentioned it’s going to give Luhansk to the self-proclaimed Russian-backed Luhansk Individuals’s Republic whose independence it recognised on the eve of the battle.
However Zelenskyy poured scorn on Moscow’s achievements. “What’s all this for? For the sake of insane propagandists to have the ability to present a Russian or Soviet flag on the ruins someplace of their broadcasts. There’s merely no different reply,” he mentioned in his Sunday night time tackle.
No let-up in Russian assault on east
The Russian military continued to pound jap Ukraine on Monday, advancing its plan to overcome all the Donbass area after taking Lysychansk.
In Sloviansk, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants earlier than the battle, Russian strikes killed six individuals on Sunday, together with a nine-year-old woman.
The Ukrainian authorities are actually calling on residents to go away the area, whereas the entrance line is only some kilometres away.
Ukrainian forces look like making an attempt to defend a line between Siversk — about 20 kilometres west of Lysychansk — and Bakhmut, to guard Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
“The enemy has intensified its shelling on our positions within the path of Bakhmut,” the Ukrainian military headquarters confirmed in its first replace on Monday morning.
Monday sees the beginning of the Ukraine Restoration Convention in Lugano which President Zelenskyy mentioned can “grow to be an important step for Ukraine’s reconstruction”.
The convention shall be collectively hosted by Switzerland and Ukraine from 4-5 July and is billed as a chance for Ukraine to work with worldwide companions on a plan to recuperate and rebuilt the nation.
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