As Russian soldiers fought to capture Lysychansk, the last major city held by Ukrainian troops in the eastern Luhansk province, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western leaders to increase weapons supplies to his country, including air defense.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk, said shelling had caused catastrophic damage to Lysychansk, which Russian forces had targeted following the weekend fall of neighboring Sievierodonetsk, CNBC reports.
Zelenskyy delivered a video address to leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) advanced industrial nations meeting in Germany on Monday. He emphasized the critical need for more weapons, including a modern air defense system.
“Partners need to move faster if they are really partners, not observers. Delays with the weapons transfers to our state, any restrictions — this is actually an invitation for Russia to hit again and again,” he said, The New York Post reports.
In Germany, U.S. President Joe Biden told allies that they “have to stay together” against Russia in the face of its five-month assault on Ukraine. According to Reuters, the U.S. is likely to announce the purchase of advanced medium- to long-range surface-to-air missile defense systems for Ukraine.
The G7 Summit in the Bavarian Alps is dominated by the conflict in Ukraine and its impact on food and energy supplies, as well as the global economy.
At the start of the meeting, four nations moved to ban Russian gold imports to tighten sanctions on Moscow and cut off its means of financing the invasion of Ukraine. It is unclear whether there was agreement on the plan.
Sanctions have effectively cut Russia out of the global financial system; while Russian exports have been reduced, the sanctions have also caused problems for countries far beyond Russia’s borders.
Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs of backing down as his troops battle for another Ukrainian city.
Per The Times of India, Russian news agency TASS reported information from an official of the Moscow-backed separatists. The official said on Sunday that Russian military units arrived in Lysychansk from five directions and were isolating Ukrainian defenders.
“Lysychansk, it was a horror, the last week,” said Elena, an elderly woman from among dozens of evacuees, to the Times. “I already told my husband if I die, please bury me behind the house.”
Over the weekend, Russian forces took complete control of Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk’s twin city on the eastern bank of the Siversky Donets River. It is a significant setback for Ukraine after weeks of intense bombardment and street fighting.
Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which includes Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk province, is the country’s industrial heartland. After Russian troops failed to take Kyiv in the early stages of the war, the Donbas region became a top priority for the Kremlin.
Russian forces also control a large portion of southern Ukraine, including the port city of Mariupol, which fell after weeks of siege warfare left it in ruins.
In the north, Russian missiles reportedly struck Kyiv on Sunday for the first time in weeks.
Missiles also hit a bridge in the central city of Cherkasy on Sunday, according to Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, reports Reuters. The city connects western Ukraine to the eastern battlefields.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odessa regional administration, said a missile strike in southern Ukraine’s Odessa region destroyed residential buildings and started a fire. He said six people, including a child, were hurt.
Reuters was unable to confirm the report’s details immediately.
Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians. Putin insists Russia’s goal is to protect the people of Ukraine who have been “subjected to bullying and genocide.”
Furthermore, he has said Russia “will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.”
On February 21, Putin delivered an “Address to the People of Russia on the Donbas Problem and the Situation in Ukraine,” in which he gave a detailed overview of the region’s history and explained the motives behind Russia’s actions.
He said his country aims to prevent NATO’s eastward military expansion and stop the terrorism perpetrated by far-right nationalists who participate in aggressive, violent Russophobia and neo-Nazism.
Furthermore, Putin claims Kyiv elites refuse to take responsibility for the history of horrific campaigns of genocide they have waged in Ukraine, as they continually ignore UN Security Council Resolution 2202 (2015), which called for a comprehensive ceasefire in Donbas.
Thus, on February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine in what the Kremlin described as a “special military operation” to free the country of far-right nationalists and ensure Russian safety, The Dallas Express reported.
Kyiv and the West dismiss this as a pretext for an aggressive war they say has killed thousands, displaced millions, destroyed cities, and driven up prices.
