"We have to break them": Zelenkyj speaks about Ukrainian losses in Luhansk

Created: 07/05/2022 07:14

By: Florian Naumann

Ukraine War: Woman stands with dog near huge crater near Kharkiv school.

© SERGEY BOBOK/afp

Russia has achieved a war goal: the capture of Luhansk.

But the separatists demand more on TV.

Meanwhile, people in Mariupol are dying because of a lack of medicines.

News ticker.

• In the Ukraine war, Russia

  gained control of the

  Luhansk region

  : the city of

  Lysychansk

  fell.

• The

  separatists

  in

  eastern Ukraine

  continue to see danger from western multiple rocket launchers.

• People are dying

  in

  Mariupol due to a lack of essential

  medicines

  , drinking water and food.

• This news ticker on the military situation in the Ukraine war is continuously updated.

Update from July 5, 6:39 a.m

.: On the night of Tuesday, the air alarm was triggered again in almost the entire Ukraine.

Rocket and grenade fire was reported from the north-eastern Sumy region, injuring several people.

Ukraine War: Fighting in Donetsk continues

While Russia has taken control of the Luhansk region of Ukraine, fighting continues in the neighboring Donetsk region.

On the border with the Luhansk region, Russian attacks were successfully repelled near Bilohorivka and Verkhnjokamyanske, the Ukrainian general staff said on Facebook on Monday evening.

The Wuhlehirsk thermal power plant to the west of Svitlodarsk, which has already been conquered by pro-Russian separatists, is also contested.

Zelenskyy's adviser Oleksiy Arestovych expressed confidence that Ukrainian troops will be able to stabilize the defense lines on other front sectors after the abandonment of Lysychansk.

Overall, however, one can say that Russia's military has conquered the Luhansk region, he admitted on YouTube.

Zelenskyj: "We have to break them"

Zelenskyj only briefly commented on the course of the fighting in the east of the country, where Ukrainian troops had to give up the city of Lysychansk at the weekend.

The Russian armed forces have thus largely brought the Luhansk region under their control - which was considered one of their key war objectives.

The Ukrainian armed forces inflicted casualties on the Russian military every day, Zelenskyy said.

"We have to break them." That will take time and "superhuman effort", but there is no alternative to secure Ukraine's future.

Selenskyj was convinced that occupied areas would be recaptured.

War in Ukraine: No medicines, hardly any water and food - situation in the city of Mariupol is critical

Update from July 4, 9:46 p.m .:

The people in the Ukraine war not only suffer from direct fire, but also from the indirect consequences of the war.

In the city of Mariupol, occupied by Russian troops, residents are apparently dying due to a lack of medicines.

The city lacks medicines for cancer patients, people with diabetes, tuberculosis and thyroid problems, Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on Telegram on Monday.

Access to sufficient food and drinking water is also restricted.

The information could not initially be verified independently.

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Ukraine War: Ukrainian Territory reports gains and losses in Donetsk Oblast

Update from July 4, 7:47 p.m.: Over

the weekend, the Ukrainian army finally withdrew from Lysychansk, so the entire Luhansk region is now under Russian control.

The Ukrainian general staff reported on Facebook on Monday evening that the fighting had been shifted to the neighboring Donetsk region and reported gains and losses from there.

On the border of the two regions, Russian attacks were successfully repelled near Bilohorivka and Verkhnjokamjanske, the General Staff said.

The Wuhlehirsk thermal power plant west of Svitlodarsk, which has already been conquered by pro-Russian separatists, is said to be contested.

On the other hand, the Russian troops had gained territory north of Slowjansk near Masanivka.

In addition, Ukrainian positions on large parts of the front were shelled with artillery, rocket launchers and mortars and by the Russian air force.

The information could not initially be verified independently.

Ukraine war: Moscow wants to rename square in front of British embassy

Update from July 4, 5:24 p.m

.: Provocation in the Russian capital: Moscow wants to rename a square in front of the British Embassy after the Luhansk region that has just been conquered.

In an online survey, the majority of Muscovites voted in favor of this location in order to dedicate it to the "Luhansk People's Republic", the city administration announced.

Places not far from the German consulate and an area not far from the embassies of Lithuania and Belgium were also available for selection.

At the end of June, the city of Moscow had already renamed the square in front of the US embassy “Donetsk People's Republic Square”.

Putin wants troops to "rest" - but the separatist leader is already demanding more

First report from July 4, 2022:

Luhansk/Munich – The Russian invasion of Ukraine was preceded, among other things, by bold demands from the separatist areas in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Now renewed calls for aggressive action are coming from Luhansk;

piquantly with reference to western arms shipments.

They could be a harbinger of further attacks - although Vladimir Putin tended to leave the offensive rhetoric to his subordinates on Monday.

Moscow only reported the case of Lysychansk, the last Ukrainian-controlled city in the Luhansk region, at the weekend.

The Kremlin has thus achieved one of its most important war goals.

But that's not enough for Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic: he wants to see the Ukrainian troops pushed back further.

Pasechnik called for another security buffer on Russian television and reminded the Kremlin of the goal of "denazification and demilitarization of all of Ukraine," as reported by the Ria Novosti news agency.

Ukraine war: Separatists demand more conquests from Putin - "Unfortunately reach our territory"

“The territory of the republic has been liberated.

Unfortunately, the safety of the residents of the republic was not fully guaranteed on our territory," Pasechnik said, according to the report on the Perwy kanal TV channel.

The separatist chief argued with multiple rocket launchers that the West had delivered to Ukraine: "Unfortunately, they are reaching our area," said Pasechnik.

He added: "We must at least push the enemy into an area that is safe for us."

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin officially recognized the two so-called People's Republics in February - and initially gave the order to invade the areas, officially to "secure peace".

A little later, Moscow took up the cause of “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine in a narrative that was heavily criticized in the West.

"Nobody has canceled this task," explained Pasechnik now.

The statement in the important medium can be read as a declaration of war on Kyiv.

But it also increases the pressure on the Kremlin to succeed.

Putin comments on the Ukraine war: Soldiers should "rest" - Minister announces further fighting

However, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also announced a continued offensive on Monday (July 4).

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation are continuing the military special operation," he said at a meeting with Putin - in Russia there is still talk of a "special operation" instead of a war.

However, Putin himself said that Russian soldiers who took part in the capture of Luhansk should now “rest” in order to gather strength for further fighting.

Other units, on the other hand, should continue to fulfill their "tasks," Putin told Shoigu - hoping that "everything will happen in their directions as in Luhansk."

The head of the Kremlin also awarded two generals the Order of Heroes of Russia.

According to Ukrainian sources, only a few thousand people are left in Lysychansk from what used to be more than 100,000 inhabitants.

The military governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, said the number was around 10,000 on Ukrainian television on Monday.

In the neighboring city of Sievjerodonetsk, which is also under Russian control, only about 8,000 people remained.

More than 100,000 lived there before the war began.

Observers have recently repeatedly expressed concern that Russia wants to depopulate the areas through brutal attacks.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not yet see Lysychansk as lost.

"If the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest advantage in fire - Lysychansk in particular - it means only one thing: that thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increased supply of modern weapons, we will come back," said he still on Sunday in a video message.

Ukraine also celebrated a symbolic triumph on Monday: after the withdrawal of Russian soldiers, troops raised the Ukrainian flag on Snake Island off the Black Sea coast.

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