“More than two-thirds of the city’s houses have been destroyed,” Zelensky said in a televised address yesterday in the fighting around Severodonetsk.
fierce battles
Heavy fighting has been going on around Severodonetsk for days and Russia appears to be making gains, but it is having a hard time with Ukrainian forces holed up in trenches. Off-duty General Mart de Kruif explains in the video below how difficult it is to control this area:
Yesterday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the army attacked nearly 40 air targets in the past 24 hours, including five weapons depots in Donbass. In addition, it was said that approximately 600 targets were fired with missiles and artillery.
special military operation
Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the “liberation” of the Donbas region is an “absolute priority of Russia’s special military operation” in Ukraine.
According to Lavrov, other Ukrainian regions should be able to decide their own future. But the Russian minister predicts that many other regions will certainly not be eager to return to the authority of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv.
President in Kharkiv
Where there was heavy fighting in the Donbass, since mid-May it was relatively calm in Kharkov, about 50 kilometers from the Russian border. Chief of Staff Zelensky said on Sunday that about a third of the area is currently occupied by the Russians.
Yesterday, the Ukrainian President paid a visit to the Ukrainian forces in the northeastern Kharkov region. This was Zelensky’s first official visit outside Kyiv since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
“2,229 buildings were destroyed in the area, but we will rebuild, rebuild and bring back life,” Zelensky said in a video afterwards. Footage from the visit shows the president wearing a flak jacket.
Grain export to Russia
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers, but about 25 million tons of grain has not been able to leave the country since the beginning of the war. Production and exports are facing severe obstacles.
Now, Russia’s state agency TASS reports that the Kherson region, under Russian control, began exporting harvested grain last year to Russia. Ukraine has previously accused Russia of stealing grain from areas it seized since the beginning of the Russian invasion.