Ukrainian forces are facing “massive” and relentless artillery attacks in a battleground eastern city, Kyiv said on Tuesday.
Moscow’s troops have been pummeling eastern Ukraine for weeks and are slowly advancing, despite fierce resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian military.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces tightening their grip on Severodonetsk in the Donbas region, its twin city of Lysychansk is now coming under heavier bombardment.
Photo: AFP
“The Russian army is massively shelling Lysychansk,” Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, which includes both cities, wrote on Telegram. “They are just destroying everything there... They destroyed buildings and unfortunately there are casualties.”
Russian forces have been occupying villages in the area and taking control of the two cities would give Moscow control of the whole of Lugansk, allowing them to press further into the Donbas.
In Lysychansk, a Russian strike had left a gaping hole in a police station and damaged nearby apartment blocks, journalists in the city reported.
The direct hit on the station on Monday wounded 20 police officers, authorities said.
“Partition walls fell down and the doors were blown out,” said a policeman who gave his nickname as Petrovich, showing the damage to the building.
In his daily address on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused the Russian army of “brutal and cynical” shelling in the eastern Kharkiv region.
“The Russian army is deaf to any rationality. It simply destroys, simply kills,” Zelenskiy said.
Fifteen people were killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv on Tuesday, its governor said.
Away from the battlefield, Moscow was locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with EU member Lithuania over the country’s restrictions on rail traffic to the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad.
The territory is about 1,600km from Moscow, bordering Lithuania and Poland.
By blocking goods arriving from Russia, Lithuania says it is simply adhering to EU-wide sanctions on Moscow.
However, Moscow accused Brussels of an “escalation” and summoned the EU’s ambassador to Russia.
The US made clear its commitment to Lithuania as an ally in NATO, which considers an attack against one member an attack on all.
“We stand by our NATO allies and we stand by Lithuania,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
SAFETY FIRST: Double the number of police were deployed at the Taipei Marathon, while other cities released plans to bolster public event safety Authorities across Taiwan have stepped up security measures ahead of Christmas and New Year events, following a knife and smoke bomb attack in Taipei on Friday that left four people dead and 11 injured. In a bid to prevent potential copycat incidents, police deployments have been expanded for large gatherings, transport hubs, and other crowded public spaces, according to official statements from police and city authorities. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city has “comprehensively raised security readiness” in crowded areas, increased police deployments with armed officers, and intensified patrols during weekends and nighttime hours. For large-scale events, security checkpoints and explosives
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
PENTAGON ASSESSMENT: A US report said that even as China and Russia deepen their partnership, cooperation is hindered by a ‘mutual distrust’ of each other The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as of October had doubled the number of ships and airplanes deployed around Taiwan compared with the previous two years, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) said yesterday, a day after the opposition-controlled legislature voted against reviewing the government’s general budget for next year, including a NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.71 billion) special defense spending bill. The legislature’s vote against the Ministry of National Defense’s spending plans was regrettable, as the budget was designed to respond to the developing Chinese military threat, Hsu said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting on the general budget. Defense
RSS