Ukrainian forces were entrenched in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk on Monday, under heavy shelling as Russian troops tried to seize the industrial area known as Donbas.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine from Tokyo. In previous days of his Asian tour, Biden signed legislation to give Ukraine another $40 billion in US aid to defend against the Russian attack.
The attacks intensified as Ukrainian and Russian forces fought on a 551-kilometre (342-mile) front in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, with people fleeing the violence.
“We haven’t been able to see the sun in three months. We are almost blind because we spent three months in the dark.”said Rayisa Rybalko, who fled to Ukrainian-held Kiurakhove from the town of Novomykhailivka, near the frontline in Donetsk. “The world should have seen that”.
She moved with her family to a school bomb shelter the day before her house was destroyed in a bombing. They were waiting for an evacuation bus after another villager had driven them to Kiurakhove.
His son-in-law, Dmytro Khaliapin, said that heavy artillery was punishing the village. “The houses are left in ruins,” he said. “It’s a horror.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda traveled to kyiv on Sunday to endorse Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union and delivered a speech to the Ukrainian parliament, where he received a standing ovation as he thanked lawmakers for allowing him to speak where “The heart of a free, independent and democratic Ukraine beats.”
Ukraine does not have to give in to pressure from Russia or elsewhere in EuropeDoubt said. “I want to say it very clearly: Only Ukraine has the right to decide on its future. Only Ukraine has the right to decide for itself.”
Duda, a conservative populist who clearly preferred former US President Donald Trump to Biden in the 2020 election, said nonetheless that “kyiv is the place from which one clearly sees that we need more America in Europe, both in the army as well as in this economic dimension”.
Poland has become an important ally of Ukraine. It has welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees and has become a gateway for humanitarian aid and weapons, as well as a transit point for some foreign fighters who have volunteered to fight against Russian forces.
People-to-people fighting continued on the battlefield as Russian troops sought to expand territory controlled since 2014 by Moscow-backed separatists in Donbas, including Luhansk and Donetsk.
Sievierodonetsk is the most important city under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk province. Governor Serhii Haidai accused Russian forces of “deliberately trying to destroy the city … with a scorched-earth strategy.”
Haidai said Russian fighters had occupied several towns in Luhansk after 24 hours of indiscriminate attacks and were building up forces and weapons there after receiving reinforcements from Kharkiv in the northwest, Mariupol in the south and from inside Russia.
The Ukrainian army said Russian forces had been unsuccessful in their offensive on Oleksandrivka, a town on the outskirts of the city.
The Ukrainian parliament on Sunday approved martial law and mobilized its armed forces for the third time, until August 23. Ukrainian authorities have not released much about their casualties since the war began, although Zelenskyy said Sunday that 50 to 100 Ukrainian fighters were dying in the east, apparently a day.
In a morning briefing from its General Staff, Russia said it was preparing to resume its offensive on Slovyansk, a city in Donetsk province where heavy fighting broke out last month following the withdrawal of Russian forces around kyiv.
The conflict is not limited to eastern Ukraine. Loud explosions were heard in Korosten, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of kyiv, on Monday morning, according to the city’s deputy mayor. It was the third day in a row of apparent attacks in the Zhyotmyr district, according to Ukrainian news agencies.
(with information from AP)
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Source-www.infobae.com