Russian and Ukrainian forces pounded each other in heavy fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk on Tuesday while Kyiv’s allies met in Paris to provide urgent aid to help Ukrainians survive freezing winter temperatures.
Moscow is battling to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, two of four territories the Kremlin claims to have annexed in votes rejected by most countries as illegal.
Moscow is also attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missile and drone strikes, at times cutting off electricity for millions of civilians enduring Europe’s worst conflict since World War 2.
“They’re shelling really hard, especially at night,” Valentyna, 70, told Reuters as she fled the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, which Moscow seeks to capture but which is now largely in ruins because of incessant bombardment.
Valentyna, who declined to give her surname, spoke in a van driving to the relative safety of Ukrainian-controlled Pokrovsk.
“The house would shake and every minute, second you expect it could crumble around you and that’d be it. I couldn’t even sleep in the last week, so I decided to leave,” she added.
Denis Pushilin, Russian-installed administrator of the portion controlled by Moscow, told Russian reporters that more than half of the Donetsk People’s Republic was “liberated”. The self-styled republic is a breakaway Russian-backed entity that has been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
Fierce fighting in the region in recent weeks has left unclear which parts of Donetsk are under Russian and Ukrainian control.
Three civilians were killed in the Donetsk region over the past 24 hours, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on his Telegram channel, while in the southern Kherson region, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych reported three people were killed and 15 wounded in Russian artillery attacks in the past day.
Sustained shelling
Russian troops shelled the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kherson region l 57 times, he said.
Russia’s sustained shelling of the front line in Donetsk destroyed the city of Bakhmut and heavily damaged the city of Avdiivka, which lies in the region’s centre, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.
On Monday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia kept concentrating its efforts to advance and capture both cities.
Reuters could not independently verify the latest battlefield accounts.
Belarus, a close ally of Russia, launched a snap inspection of its troops’ combat readiness after an order from President Alexander Lukashenko, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
This was the latest in a flurry of military actions, including a counter-terrorism exercise last week, that raised fear of Russia mounting an attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory in coming months.
In Paris meanwhile about 70 countries and institutions discussed what can be offered between now and March to maintain Ukraine’s water, food, energy, health and transport. Zelensky said Ukraine needed at least €800m in urgent winter energy. A second meeting between representatives of France, Ukraine and about 500 companies will see what can be invested and done in the short to long term.
A French diplomat told reporters before the meeting the immediate priority is to ensure the electricity network does not collapse and that water pipes do not freeze.
Peace summit
As he arrived at the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was agreement on removing heavy weapons from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and that talks are under way on the modalities about it.
The Group of Seven on Monday promised to “meet Ukraine’s urgent requirements” after Zelensky appealed for tanks, artillery and long-range weapons. Zelensky urged G7 leaders at a virtual meeting to support his idea of convening a special global peace summit to bring peace to his country.
The summit would focus on implementation of Kyiv’s peace plan that insists on, among other things, Russia’s withdrawal of all its troops from Ukraine and no territorial concessions on Kyiv’s part.
US President Joe Biden told Zelensky on Sunday that Washington’s priority was to boost Ukraine’s air defences. The US also shipped the first batch of power equipment to Ukraine under an aid package agreed last month.
Moscow denies deliberately attacking civilians, but the war has displaced millions and killed thousands of noncombatants.
Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said “unliveable conditions” are likely to send another wave of Ukrainian refugees into Europe over the winter.
Sergey Kovalenko, head of YASNO, which provides Kyiv with electricity, said on his Facebook page that power shortages in the capital are significant.
There are no peace talks under way to end the conflict, which Moscow calls a “special military operation” against security threats posed by its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies call it an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Ukraine must take into account the “realities” that developed in the Ukraine conflict — including Russia’s capture of territories from Ukraine — for there to be peace.
Reuters
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