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LAST UPDATE | 24 Jun 2022
UKRAINE’S FORCES WILL have to retreat from Severodonetsk, a regional governor said today, after weeks of fierce fighting against the Russians in the battleground eastern city.
It comes just hours after EU leaders granted ”candidate status” to Ukraine in its bid to join the bloc.
“Ukrainian armed forces will have to retreat from Severodonetsk. They have received an order to do so,” Sergiy Gaiday, governor of Lugansk region which includes the city, said on Telegram.
“Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn’t make sense.”
The city has been “nearly turned to rubble” by continual bombardment, he said.
“All critical infrastructure has been destroyed. Ninety percent of the city is damaged, 80 percent (of) houses will have to be demolished,” he said.
Capturing Severodonetsk in the Donbas area has been a key goal of the Russians as they seek to seize a swathe of eastern Ukraine.
Russia is focusing its offensive on the eastern Donbas region, after being pushed back from Kyiv following their February invasion, and its troops are making steady advances despite fierce Ukrainian resistance.
In a show of support, European Union leaders agreed yesterday to grant candidate status to Ukraine, as well as Moldova, although the two former Soviet republics face a long path before joining the bloc.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the news as “a unique and historic moment”, adding: “Ukraine’s future is within the EU.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that the decision by EU leaders sent a “very strong signal” to Russia that Europeans support the pro-Western aspirations of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin had declared Ukraine to be part of Moscow’s sphere and insisted he was acting due to attempts to bring the country into NATO, the Western alliance that comes with security guarantees.
European powers before the invasion had distanced themselves from US support for Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and EU membership is at least years away.
Ukraine and Moldova will have to go through protracted negotiations and the European Union has laid out steps that Kyiv must take even before that, including bolstering the rule of law and fighting corruption.
‘Too much damage’
Russian troops were pressing their advance in the east, tightening their grip on strategically important Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk across the Donets river.
Taking the cities would allow Russia to press further into the Donbas region, and potentially farther west.
Ukraine acknowledged yesterday that it had lost control of two areas from where it was defending the cities, with Russian forces now closer to encircling the industrial hubs.
Street fighting has raged for weeks in Severodonetsk, with Ukrainian forces controlling only the industrial zones of the city.
A representative of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine told AFP the resistance of Ukrainian forces trying to defend Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was “pointless and futile.”
“At the rate our soldiers are going, very soon the whole territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic will be liberated,” said Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the Moscow-backed army of Lugansk.
AFP journalists driving out of Lysychansk twice had to jump out of cars and lie on the ground as Russian forces shelled the city’s main supply road.
They saw dark smoke rising over the road ahead, and heard artillery fire and saw flashes of light, while the road was strewn with trees felled by shelling.
The situation for those that remain in the city was increasingly bleak.
Liliya Nesterenko said her house had no gas, water or electricity and she and her mother were cooking on a campfire. She was cycling along the street, and had come out to feed a friend’s pets.
But the 39-year-old was upbeat about the city’s defences: “I believe in our Ukrainian army, they should (be able to) cope.
“They’ve prepared already.”
‘Gas is scarce’
With Ukraine pleading for accelerated weapon deliveries, the United States announced it was sending another $450 million in fresh armaments, including Himars rocket systems.
The systems can simultaneously launch multiple precision missiles at an extended range.
Western officials have also accused Russia of weaponising its key exports of gas as well as grain from Ukraine, contributing to global inflation and rising hunger in the world.
A US official warned of new retaliatory measures against Russia at the Group of Seven summit being attended by President Joe Biden in Germany starting on Sunday.
Germany ratcheted up an emergency gas plan to its second alert level, just one short of the maximum that could require rationing in Europe’s largest economy, after Russia slashed its supplies.
“Gas is now a scarce commodity,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters, urging households to cut back on use. Demand for gas is lower in the summer but shortages could cause heating shortages in the winter.
France is aiming to have its gas storage reserves at full capacity by early autumn, and will build a new floating methane terminal to get more energy supplies by sea, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said.
A Kremlin spokesman reiterated its claim that the supply cuts were due to maintenance and that necessary equipment from abroad had not arrived.
- © AFP 2022.
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Why is there no video footage from the front line???
@John Fahy: there is actually a half decent Instagram page called “realnewsnobullshit” with front line footage uploaded daily.
@John Fahy: There is, but you can imagine there won’t be much of it. Some people aren’t stupid enough to stand out holding their phones up when bombs are dropping. They have more important things on their minds.
@John Fahy: Go on to reddit and you’ll see plenty on r/combatfootage but if you want Russian footage then download Telegram and find a group called ‘Intel Slava Z’. There’s so much footage out there and it’s easy to find. I don’t understand why people can’t grasp the concept that a war is happening.
@John Fahy: because war is brutal and footage from it can be quite distressing and disturbing to watch..its not like the movies..if you want to see footage you can easily find it on the likes of twitter and reddit among other sites..however most news agencies won’t be showing any footage for obvious reasons
@John Fahy:
They’re not letting many journalists near the front, not sure if it’s to keep moral high among the people or that there’s too high a risk of journos getting killed or a bit of both. I’m in Dnipro now and it’s very difficult to go anywhere east from here
@John Fahy: go on Telegram. Plenty of videos.
@Dave Walsh: is that not the job of journalists and news crews? I grew up during the Vietnam war and there was video footage on the news every day. Something is very suspicious here
@John Fahy:
The war here is very different to Vietnam for journalists, Russia are pounding and destroying everything in front of them with artillery with better range than the Ukrainians and moving forward, artillery is blind, particularly Russian artillery
@John Fahy: I believe that the Ukrainian Army asked people to stop sharing videos of their attacks on line as it exposed and revealed their positions. Since I read that somewhere (some time ago) I have noticed a significant reduction in videos – it may or may not be the reason – but it makes sense. Still I am surprised by the lack of footage myself.
@Calvin James: Technology exists today to put unmanned cameras in place that transmit footage to a remote location.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh:
This is also true, I got rumbled taking a photo of a mural and had to wait to get questioned by secret police, they informed me that a Turkish ship was docked and took footage of missiles being fired, he shared it and it made MSM in Turkey, Russia destroyed the facility an hour later. As I also explained earlier in the thread it’s an artillery war, you’d be an absolute idiot to be within 15km of the front line with the way the war is being fought
@John Fahy:
Such technology would give away Ukrainian positions
@John Fahy: you will find all you want on VK
@John Fahy: it’s called IPsec
@John Fahy: Goodman John, why don’t you do a bit of freelancing to satisfy your suspicions…
Of course, Ukraine’s future is part of the EU. Well the western part anyway as it’ll likely be absorbed into Poland. The southern and eastern will be unlikely to join as they’ll be part of Russia which probably won’t get EU status anytime soon.
@Seán: wrong Ukraine will get all of its territory back.
@shligo boyzz: You are living in an alternative world if you really believe that the m.upp.et zelensky will get the territory back,they’re part of russia now, and THEY are not going to give them up as easily as zelensky did.
@Darren Murphy: youre a m0ron if you think ukraine is giving up anything easily
@Rian Lynch: I can’t wait till all the pro Russian heads on this app are proved wrong.
@shligo boyzz: Like they took back Crimea? They’re retreating from the Donbass currently so exactly when are they going to start this massive counter-offensive? Winter is coming and that means gas bills, Western governments are going to start caring about their own citizens protesting the cost of living crisis and kicking them out of power and less about delivering arms and defeating Russia. That means the west suing for peace, putting an end to the Ukraine crisis and normalizing ties with Russia to some degree.
@Seán: the big counter offensive has started in the south with Kherson that’s more important than anything in the east atm I’m only a armchair general but Russia is weakening they focused 4 fronts into 1 in the east and all they can get is a tiny bit of land. And I’m in no way underestimating Russia they may be stupid but have a numerically advantage in man and equipment. It will be though but I think eventuality get back the pre feb 24th borders and god knows what will happen after that.
@Seán: who said Crimea is lost. There is already several ukrainian offenses on all though there seems to be no real effort going on to push on with them. Russia has run out of guided weapons and is using inaccurate weapons systems like artillery. They are still making very little progress with some Russian forces turning on their commanders in the dombass region. To say Russia has this won is well wide of the mark. They could win it but on current form it looks like Russian military forces in the east of Ukraine are being destroyed slowly. An analyst I listened to yesterday claimed that the Ukrainian forces are in a position to force Russian forces out of many areas but seem to be holding off. He’s unsure why but thinks the Ukrainians are trying to destroy Russia forces. These places the
@Allora: Russians are gaining are not valuable in relation to military strategic positions. They appear to be political assets. Severodonetsk is a city divided in 2 by a river. It appears the Russians are entering the city to be destroyed by the Ukrainians. Its another stalingrad for Russia.
@Darren Murphy: why are you calling zelensky a muppet? most rational people think he is one of the greatest leaders a country has ever seen. If you’re simply pro-russia and the war, then fair enough, i get it.
@Darren Murphy: Not sure how fighting for 100 days against a massive assault can be stated as “giving them up easily”
@Darren Murphy: No critic of Putin ? … how odd
The Ukrainians are doing fantastic work; holding the invaders back whilst grinding them into the ground to allow the Kherson offensive to get underway.
Russia is finished, thankfully.
@Stephen O’Neill: which Ukrainians are doing fantastic work…… the Nationalists or the Republicans…. if only Zelenskyy had kept his election promises…if only…… none of this would have happened.
@Fergus Quinlan: which election promises ?
@Fergus Quinlan: Which election promise?
Because he didnt make overtures to NATO until AFTER the Russian troop buildup along their border.
NATO military assistance has been ongoing since 2014. Well before Zelensky was elected.
The commies are awake I see
@Fergus Quinlan: Ah Fergus, the man that used an article on the slaughter of 21 kids in Uvalde to push his anti Ukraine/pro Russian agenda (that took some doing I’ll give ya that) ….. a true humanitarian
Every week Zelenski sounds more and more like Comical Ali. “We are beating them back”, “They are losing so many men they cannot continue”, “We are holding our ground and will not retreat”
have your say