War in Ukraine: Russia apparently moves numerous troops to Sievjerodonetsk

Created: 06/19/2022, 04:58

By: Daniel Dillmann, Lucas Maier

The east of Ukraine remains hard fought.

But Russia is on the rise.

The news ticker.

• Negotiations falter:

  In the Ukraine war, there should be no more talks until the end of August.

• Johnson visit:

  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is visiting the capital Kiev in the middle of the Ukraine conflict.

• Heavy fighting in Sieverodonetsk

  :

  Russia continues its attacks in eastern Ukraine.

  The city of Sieverodonetsk remains hotly contested.

+++ 9.30 p.m .:

Russian troops destroyed oil tanks near the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a rocket attack on Saturday.

The regional administration reported three rockets hit the depot in the Novomokovsk district.

"There is a strong fire," wrote the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Valentyn Reznichenko on Telegram.

Three people were taken to hospital with burns.

Russian missiles struck a factory that processes gas near the city of Izyum in eastern Ukraine.

There was also a big fire there, as the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, announced.

In addition to the factory, houses were also hit.

No information was given about the victims in this case.

+++ 19.30 p.m .:

According to Ukrainian information, Russia is sending a large number of units from other combat areas to the Sievjerodonetsk region in order to gain full control of the front city.

"Today, tomorrow or the day after they will throw in all the reserves they have," Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on national television.

"Because there are already so many of them, they have a critical mass." According to Gaidai, Russian troops already control most of the city, but not all of it.

For weeks, the city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine was heavily fought over.

Now Russia is said to have conquered them for the most part.

(Archive image) © Oleksandr Ratushniak/dpa

+++ 6.10 p.m .:

According to the pro-Russian mayor of Donetsk, Ukrainian troops shot at the city in the morning.

A building of the Donetsk National University, a school, shops, residential buildings and administrative buildings were damaged, Alexei Kulemzin wrote on Telegram, civilians were killed or injured.

The information could not be independently verified.

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+++ 4.10 p.m .:

From Mönchengladbach to the border between Poland and Ukraine: On Saturday (June 18) an airlift for the transport of war casualties from Ukraine was inaugurated in Mönchengladbach.

With the "Ukraine Airlift Day", the initiators want to win more volunteer pilots and aircraft owners for the eastbound flights.

The singer of the Fantastischen Vier, Smudo, has announced that he intends to embark on an aid flight soon.

The 54-year-old is a hobby pilot and supports the project.

On the way there, the small machines transport medicines and medical equipment, on the way back they bring the injured to Germany for treatment.

Ukraine War: Zelenskyj travels south

+++ 1.35 p.m .:

Volodymyr Selenskyj has traveled to the front in southern Ukraine again.

A video on his Telegram channel shows the President of Ukraine handing out medals in the city of Mykolaiv and inspecting the situation in the city east of Odessa.

“We discussed the state of the economy, the restoration of the water supply and the situation in agriculture.

Particular attention was paid to threats from land and sea," reads the video's description.

+++ 12.13 p.m .:

The Kremlin is apparently stepping up its efforts to advance further into the Donbass from the north.

This is according to reports from the British Ministry of Defence.

Accordingly, the Kremlin is preparing a new offensive from the direction of the city of Izyum to the southeast.

The aim is to surround the city of Sievjerodonetsk with their own troops from all sides.

This is likely to aggravate the situation of the civilians still there.

Russia fires on refinery in Ukraine

+++ 10.45 a.m .:

Russia has again attacked the centrally located town of Kremenchuk.

The refinery located there was hit by a total of six rockets, as pravda.ua reports.

Two more rockets hit the place, as regional spokesman Dymytro Lunin announced.

As far as we know, no one was injured in the attack.

The refinery hit had already been so badly damaged by previous attacks that it is no longer in operation.

The information could not be independently verified and is based on the reports of the regional manager Lunin.

Ukraine war: Negotiations with Russia only resume at the end of August

+++ 9.35 a.m .:

The negotiations in the Ukraine war are currently limited to questions of detail.

General peace has long since ceased to be an issue in the talks.

This is reported by the dpa news agency.

Both Moscow and Kyiv are currently counting on improving their negotiating position through military successes.

Ukraine's chief negotiator David Arakhamiya further elaborated on this in an interview with the

on Saturday (June 18) .

There he announced that talks about peace with Russia would not take place until the end of August.

"I think we will conduct an operation with counterattacks in different places," Arachamija said of the decision.

Ukraine would then probably have a better negotiating position, read at the moment.

Ukraine War: Street Fighting in Sieverodonetsk

Update, 8:06 a.m .: Heavy

fighting continues in eastern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the situation in Sievjerodonetsk in particular is confusing.

There is now a fight for every single street.

The city itself and its surroundings have been under heavy artillery fire from Russia for days.

According to the Ukrainian governor of the region, Serhiy Hajdaj, many Russian soldiers would also be killed.

The Kremlin would always replace these with new ones.

The evacuation of the numerous civilians who are still trapped in the city is currently impossible. The neighboring city of Lysychansk is still under Ukrainian control.

But the road to there was under fire from Russian artillery.

++ Ukraine war: Kyiv reports heavy losses - Johnson surprisingly visits

Kyiv - After 114 days of war in Ukraine, the attacker from Russia seems to have the luck of the war on his side.

According to a high-ranking general, the Ukrainian army has suffered high material losses since the fighting began.

"To date, as a result of active combat, we have an estimated 30 to 40, sometimes up to 50 percent losses in our equipment," Brigadier General Volodymyr Karpenko told the US magazine "National Defense".

In the meantime, around "1,300 infantry fighting vehicles, 400 tanks and 700 artillery systems have been lost."

++ Ukraine war: Johnson assures further support

In order to be able to continue to defend against the attacks from Russia, military support and new weapons from the West are needed above all.

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, who surprisingly received British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday, also demands this.

During his spontaneous visit to Kyiv, he promised no new weapons for Ukraine, but at least training programs for the soldiers.

Military trainers from Great Britain had already instructed the Ukrainian army in the use of modern Western weapons at the beginning of the Ukraine conflict and before the start of hostilities.

Johnson also promised Selenskyi the delivery of additional weapon systems.

++ Ukraine war: fighting in the east of the country

The fighting between Ukraine and Russia continued to focus on the Donbass region on Saturday night.

In particular, the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Luhansk region remains fiercely contested.

The Russian army fired again at the Azot chemical plant on Friday.

According to the Ukrainian army, more than 560 civilians have sought shelter on the extensive factory site.

Among them are said to be 38 children.

++ Ukraine war: number of civilian casualties increases continuously

The number of civilian casualties in the Ukraine war is also steadily increasing.

This is also confirmed by reports from the region around the city of Donetsk.

Four people were killed there by a Russian missile attack, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Six other people were injured in the attack.

The authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv reported two dead and 20 injured after attacks by the Russian army.

The governor of the region, Vitaly Kim, spoke of repeated rocket attacks from Russia on residential areas in the region.

The Kremlin, on the other hand, denies shelling residential areas.

(dil/dpa)