KYIV, Ukraine – The mayor of Svyarodonetsk says Russian forces have captured nearly half of the city in eastern Ukraine.
Alexander Streak told the Associated Press in a phone interview on Tuesday that heavy fighting continues and artillery bombardment threatens the lives of thousands of civilians who are still sheltering in the ruined city.
“Half of the city is occupied by the Russians and fierce street fighting is going on,” Streeck said. “The situation is very dire and the city is essentially being ruthlessly destroyed block by block.”
He added that “the Ukrainian army continues to resist this frenzied push and aggression by the Russian military.”
Streak estimated that about 13,000 people out of a pre-war population of about 100,000 remained in the city, but he said it was impossible to keep track of civilian casualties amid round-the-clock shelling. He said more than 1,500 people who died of various causes have been buried in the city since the start of the war in February. Evacuation efforts were halted due to the threat of shelling.
He added that “civilians are dying from direct attacks, from fragmentation wounds and under the rubble of destroyed buildings, as most residents hide in basements and shelters.”
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Major Developments in the Russo-Ukraine War:
– In a major setback, the European Union bans imports of most Russian oil
– A ‘terrible nightmare’: the treatment of wounded civilians of Ukraine
– War crimes meeting held in The Hague regarding the Russo-Ukraine War
– Turkish leader writes on ‘risk’ of Sweden, Finland in NATO
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Follow Associated Press’s coverage of the war in Ukraine https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Other Developments:
ISTANBUL – Turkish Foreign Minister says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkey on June 8 for talks that will, among other things, address the opening of the Black Sea Corridor for Ukrainian grain exports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said in a video interview with the state-run Anadolu news agency on Tuesday that French and German ambassadors had been called to the foreign ministry over demonstrations in their countries by groups considered by Ankara to be terrorists.
Turkey has said that the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are one of its objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. The PKK has been designated a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A court in Ukraine has convicted two Russian soldiers of war crimes for shelling civilian buildings and sentenced both to 11 1/2 years in prison. Tuesday’s decision concluded the country’s second war crimes trial since the start of the Russian offensive.
Russian soldiers Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov were accused of violating the laws and customs of war by shelling civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region on the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They both stood trial in a court in Ukraine’s Poltava region and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Earlier this month, a court in Kyiv sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison for fatally shooting a Ukrainian civilian in the first war crimes trial since Russia’s invasion.
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Copenhagen, Denmark – Denmark says its embassy in Moscow will no longer accept applications for visas or residence permits. It is citing staff shortages after Russia expelled four diplomats and three other employees earlier this month.
The foreign ministry said on Tuesday that “it is not possible to maintain the normal level of activity.” It said it wanted to prioritize giving aid to Danish citizens. It said the move was temporary, but did not specify how long it would last.
Moscow’s tit-for-tat move came after Denmark in April expelled 15 Russian embassy staff from the diplomatic mission in Copenhagen, in line with similar steps taken by other EU countries.
The Netherlands also closed its visa department in Moscow because employees were fired.
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The leader of Russia-backed separatists, which control part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, says his administration will nationalize some ships in Mariupol port.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Denis Pushilin as saying on Tuesday that “some of the ships will come under the jurisdiction of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Relevant decisions have been made.” It was not immediately clear whether he was referring to Ukrainian ships or ships from other countries.
Kyiv has accused Russia of blocking its sea ports and hindering grain exports, fueling the global food crisis. Moscow has sought to place the blame on the sanctions imposed on the West and on Russia.
At the start of the war, Russian forces besieged Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Azov Sea. He took full control of it this month after capturing about 2,500 Ukrainian fighters who were hiding in the huge Azovstal steel mill, the last remaining pocket of Ukrainian resistance.
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BRUSSELS – After reaching an overnight agreement to ban most Russian oil imports, EU leaders will focus on Tuesday on how to help Ukraine with exports of millions of tons of grain blocked by the war.
The leaders will call on Russia to halt its attacks on transport infrastructure in Ukraine and lift the blockade of Black Sea ports so that food can be shipped out, particularly from Odessa.
Ukraine says Russia has halted 22 million tonnes of its grain exports and is fueling a global food crisis. The United Nations says African countries imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says EU sanctions are making the situation worse. Putin says he is willing to help ease concerns if the restrictive measures are lifted.
EU leaders are likely to make rapid efforts to establish “solidarity lanes” and to help Ukraine move its grain through European land routes and sea ports.
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KYIV, Ukraine — At least three people were killed and six others wounded in an overnight missile attack on the city of Sloviask in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s regional governor says.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrilenko said in a Facebook post Tuesday morning that a school and at least seven multi-storey buildings were damaged.
Luhansk Governor Serhi Haidai said on Telegram on Tuesday that two people were killed and four wounded in the neighboring Luhansk region, where Russian forces are attempting to capture the city of Svierodonetsk. He did not say when the shelling took place.
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The Hague, Netherlands – Representatives of a group of nations working together to investigate war crimes in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are meeting in The Hague to bring justice to those responsible for the atrocities.
Tuesday’s coordination meeting at Eurojust, the EU’s judicial cooperation agency, comes as members of a joint investigative team and International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan come as Russian forces continue to beat Ukrainian cities.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as an illegal act of aggression. Russian forces were accused of killing civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Buka and repeatedly attacking civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, and attacking a theater in the besieged city of Mariupol, which was used as a shelter by hundreds of civilians. was going. An investigation by The Associated Press found evidence that the March 16 bombings killed nearly 600 people inside and outside the building.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the Associated Press and PBS series Frontline have confirmed 273 possible war crimes.
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Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office says he has stressed the need to establish a corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine says Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea ports is blocking millions of tons of grain supplies around the world.
Erdogan’s office said late Monday that he told his Ukrainian counterpart that he “attaches special importance” to securing a safe passage for ships exporting agriculture.
He also wants Turkey to be part of an Istanbul-based “control center” including Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations to find a way to end the war.
Earlier on Monday, Erdogan spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A readout of that call from Erdogan’s office referred to “observational mechanisms” involving Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations and no details were given.
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POKROVSK, Ukraine — In eastern Ukraine, hospitals in cities and towns near Russia’s front lines of war are increasingly coming under pressure.
Many workers have fled and those who remain are facing an influx of war-wounds on top of their usual influx of sick patients. A lifeline for over-stretched hospitals is a specially equipped evacuation train run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
It includes an intensive care unit and moves the injured and sick to better equipped hospitals on the west side in safer parts of the country.
A surgeon in the eastern city of Kramatorsk says medical workers are facing “the most terrifying nightmare” of treating civilians who have been injured in Russian attacks that have amputated children’s organs.
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