Donetsk and Luhansk soon officially recognized by Assad?
Syria congratulates Russia on 'liberation'
Created: 06/16/2022Updated: 06/16/2022, 12:35 p.m
By: Momir Takac, Patrick Mayer
The evacuation of the Azot chemical plant in Sievjerodonetsk has failed for the time being.
Kyiv apparently thwarts an attack on the Zelenskyi government.
The Ukraine war in the news ticker.
Evacuation
of
Azot chemical plant
fails: civilians are unable to flee Severodonetsk.
Terrorist attack
on
Zelenskyi
government
foiled: Hundreds arrested according to Ukrainian police.
Depot with
NATO weapons
destroyed in
western Ukraine
?
Russia reports alleged military success.
This
news ticker
on the military situation in the Ukraine war
is constantly updated
Update from June 16, 12:20 p.m .:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad apparently wants to officially recognize the People’s Republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR).
This was announced by a delegation of the Donetsk People's Republic located in Syria via the Telegram channel of the DPR Ministry of Information.
This is reported by the Russian Agency for International Information RIA
.
The statement said that al-Assad congratulated the DPR delegation on liberating most of the republic.
He will instruct the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to start the process of officially recognizing the DPR and LPR.
The Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad assured that they would initiate the process immediately.
Russia recognized the two people's republics on February 21, 2022, just days before the start of the Ukraine conflict.
Close confidants: Vladimir Putin with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
(Archive photo) © Alexei Druzhinin/picture alliance/dpa/Pool Sputnik Kremlin (archive photo)
Ukraine conflict: Heavy fighting continues in the east of the country
Update from June 16, 10:10 a.m .:
In eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian troops continue to fight heavily in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
In the direction of the city of Bakhmut, there are Russian attacks "to improve the tactical situation," the Ukrainian general staff announced on Facebook on Thursday.
The towns of Wessele, Soledar, Berestowe and Vowchojarivka were under artillery fire.
There is also heavy fighting in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.
The Russians are also attempting to attack in the direction of Sloviansk.
In the neighboring Luhansk region, the city of Sievjerodonetsk was particularly hotly contested.
Part of the industrial city is still under Ukrainian control.
There was also artillery shelling on sections of the front in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukraine conflict: Apparently two ex-US soldiers captured by Russian troops
Update from June 16, 7:29 a.m .:
Two ex-US soldiers are said to have disappeared in the Ukraine conflict near the city of Kharkiv in the east of the country.
The
Washington Post
reports .
In calls to family members, the newspaper learned that the two men from the state of Alabama told them on June 8 that they could not be reached during a multi-day mission.
Since then there has been no sign of life from them.
Relatives believe they were captured by Russian forces.
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According to the British The Telegraph
, which first reported on it, if the two Americans were actually captured, this could
lead to diplomatic complications.
Because the Kremlin is looking for evidence of direct US involvement in the Ukraine war.
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin could demand significant concessions for their release.
Ukrainian soldiers fire mortar shells at Russian positions in eastern Kharkiv region.
(Archive photo from May 17, 2022) © Bernat Armangue/dpa/picture alliance
Two British and one Moroccan fighters had previously been captured in the Donbass.
They were put on trial and are now to be executed as "mercenaries".
Civilians at the chemical plant in Seyerodonetsk: Evacuation failed
Update from June 15, 10:30 p.m .:
Russia has accused Ukraine of preventing the evacuation of civilians from a chemical plant in the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Sieverodonetsk.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Wednesday that Russia had created a corridor to bring civilians from the Azot factory to safety.
However, the “Kiev authorities” had “cynically failed” the “humanitarian operation”.
On Tuesday, Russia announced a humanitarian corridor that would be open for twelve hours.
According to Russian information, civilians entrenched in the Azot plant were to be given the opportunity to leave Sievjerodonetsk in the direction of the Luhansk region controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
However, the Ukrainian forces broke the ceasefire "several times" and abused the humanitarian operation to move their own soldiers to more favorable positions, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Flown in via Poland: 300 seriously injured Ukraine soldiers receive medical treatment in Germany
Update from June 15, 7:15 p.m .:
According to a report by the “heute journal”, the German Air Force with its flying intensive care unit, an Airbus machine, has now flown more than 300 seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers from Poland’s eastern border to Germany for treatment.
ZDF showed excerpts from an interview with a wounded soldier being treated in Bochum.
“No one should experience war, no one in the world.
It's better not to know what war means," explains 21-year-old "Sascha" in it: "I wouldn't wish on anyone to have to go through this experience.
But everyone in Ukraine has this now: war.
It is difficult."
No one should experience war, no one in the world.
Ukrainian soldier "Sascha" on ZDF
Terrorist attack on Zelenskyi government foiled: Hundreds arrested according to Ukrainian police
Update from June 15, 6:50 p.m.:
The Ukrainian police allegedly prevented a terrorist attack on the government of Ukraine.
This was stated by Deputy Interior Minister Yevheniy Yenin, according to the media project
The Kyiv Independent
.
He gave no details of the operation.
Already at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war there were repeated rumors and reports that the Russian side wanted to kidnap or even kill President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It has never been verified since then.
The current report on an allegedly planned terrorist attack cannot be independently verified either.
According to Jenin, since February 24, Ukrainian police have arrested over 800 people suspected of "sabotage and reconnaissance activities".
President of Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelenskyj (centre), here during a visit to the front at the end of May.
© IMAGO/Xinhua
Dnipropetrovsk region apparently shelled: Russian troops are said to be attacking residential areas
Update from June 15, 6:25 p.m.:
Russian troops are apparently shelling the Dnipropetrovsk region with Uragan rocket launchers.
According to Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the attack hit residential areas in the cities of Zelenodolsk and Apostolovo in Kryvyi Rih district.
No casualties have been reported so far.
The region around the city of Dnipro (almost one million inhabitants) is around 300 kilometers west of the heavily contested Sievjerodonetsk and away from the front line.
The Uragan systems are obsolete Soviet-era rocket launchers, first introduced in the 1970s.
Multiple rocket launchers for Ukraine: Great Britain announces imminent delivery
Update from June 15, 5:50 p.m .:
Britain says it will soon supply Ukraine with multiple rocket launchers to help the country defend itself against Russia.
"I think delivery is imminent," British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday in Oslo on the sidelines of a meeting of the multinational Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).
Great Britain had already announced the delivery of the multiple rocket launcher system MLRS on June 6th.
According to military experts, its range of up to 80 kilometers is slightly greater than that of similar Russian systems.
Thus, the Kiev forces could hit enemy artillery without getting within range.
Ukraine, which is currently waging a bitter defensive battle in the Donbass in the east of the country, has repeatedly asked its western allies to supply it with more heavy weapons.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Tuesday that her country had only received "around ten percent" of the weapons it actually needed.
Germany is also supplying Ukraine with four MARS II rocket launchers, the Bundeswehr counterpart of the MLRS.
The Bundeswehr's heavy artillery weapon system: the MARS II rocket launcher.
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
1000 people evacuated from Donbass: Injured and sick brought to safety from eastern Ukraine
Update from June 15, 5:20 p.m.:
Around 1,000 people were evacuated from Donbass with medical trains.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
According to this, so-called medical trains, which were started by the Ukrainian railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia with the "Medecins Sans Frontieres", evacuated over 1000 people.
Among them are 690 injured and sick residents of the Donbass, according to sources in Kyiv.
Contested Sievjerodonetsk: civilians continue to be evacuated from the Ukrainian industrial state
Update from June 15, 4:50 p.m .:
In Sievjerodonetsk, despite ongoing fighting, attempts are apparently being made to get civilians out of the Azot chemical plant.
Despite Russian forces rushing into the embattled city, the evacuation of civilians continues "at every quiet moment," Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told
The Kyiv Independant
.
Russian separatists had previously described the evacuation as a failure.
Stryuk also called the humanitarian situation in Sievjerodonetsk "critical" in a TV speech.
It is not known how many civilians are still trapped in the heavily contested city.
Ukraine war: Putin may be forced to announce mass mobilization, senior European officials say
Update from June 15, 2:25 p.m .:
Russia could be forced to change its plans in the Ukraine war in just a few months.
This is reported by the Bloomberg news agency, citing unnamed high-ranking European officials.
Accordingly, Moscow has used up a large part of its military capacity and is therefore forced to look for new personnel for its combat troops.
Weapons should also be scarce.
As Bloomberg further reports, Moscow is said to be looking for old tanks in the Far East.
President Vladimir Putin may also be forced to order a mass mobilization to continue the struggle.
Putin has so far shied away from this possibility.
Ukraine war: Evacuation of Azot chemical plant failed, according to pro-Russian separatists
Update from June 15, 1:25 p.m .:
The evacuation planned by Moscow
Chemical plant Azot in Sievjerodonetsk has apparently failed.
This is reported by pro-Russian activists.
They blame the Ukrainian side for the failure.
Separatist representative Rodion Miroshnik said that soldiers would fire tanks and mortars from the premises of the plant, so that no people could be taken to safety.
Around 500 civilians are believed to be in the Azot plant.
Russian separatists expect up to 1,200 people inside, plus around 2,000 Ukrainian fighters.
Russian Ministry of Defense: Depot with NATO weapons destroyed
Update from June 15, 12:16 p.m .:
Russian troops have apparently destroyed a weapons depot in western Ukraine.
Weapons supplied by NATO are said to have been deposited in the camp near the city of Zolochiv in the Lviv region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
It is said to have been mainly M777 self-propelled howitzers that Ukraine received from NATO countries.
Ukraine War: Sievjerodonetsk and Lysychansk fiercely contested
Update from June 15, 10:45 a.m .:
The city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine and other areas in the Donbass are still fiercely contested.
"It's getting harder, but our soldiers are stopping the enemy on three sides at once.
They protect Sieverodonetsk and do not allow any advance to Lysychansk,” wrote the governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Haiday in his Telegram blog.
The governor reported that Russian forces are shelling houses and attacking the Azot chemical plant.
"The enemy is weaker in street fighting, so he opens artillery fire, which destroys our houses," said Hajdaj.
In Lysychansk, which is on a river across from Sievjerodonetsk, there are said to be many injured.
Ukraine-News: British intelligence confirms civilians in Sieverodonetsk bastion
First report from June 15, 2022
:
Sieverodonetsk - British intelligence services assume that Russian troops now control a large part of Sieberodonetsk.
This emerges from the daily assessment of the situation by the British Ministry of Defense on the Ukraine conflict.
Bitter fighting has been raging around the city in eastern Ukraine for more than a month.
During this time there was said to have been "enormous collateral damage due to heavy shelling".
Hundreds of civilians are said to be still in the Azot chemical plant in Sieverodonetsk.
© IMAGO/Viktor Antonyuk
Ukraine-News: According to British secret services, hundreds of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers are in the Azot chemical plant
The secret services also expect that the hostilities will continue for some time.
"Russian forces are likely to be stationed in and around Azot, while Ukrainian fighters may survive underground," the UK MoD wrote on Twitter.
This prevents Russian troops from being able to deploy units elsewhere.
NATO also assumes that the war in Ukraine will rage on for months.
The ministry confirmed that hundreds of civilians are taking shelter in underground bunkers at the Azot chemical plant, along with Ukrainian armed forces.
On Wednesday, civilians should be able to leave the industrial plant via a humanitarian corridor.
