President Vladimir Putin on
\nMonday ordered Russian troops to press their offensive deeper into the Donbas
\nregion of eastern Ukraine after Moscow’s forces seized the strategic city of
\nLysychansk.<\/p>\n
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin at a meeting that Moscow’s
\nforces were now in full control of the Lugansk region.<\/p>\n
In a sign there would be no let-up in the fighting and that Russia now had
\nits eyes on the entire Donetsk region, Putin told Shoigu that troops
\nstationed there must continue their operations.<\/p>\n
“Military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out
\ntheir tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin said.<\/p>\n
“I hope that everything will continue in their direction as has happened in
\nLugansk so far.”<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian army said on Sunday it was retreating from Lysychansk to
\npreserve the lives of its troops who were outnumbered and outgunned by
\nRussian forces.<\/p>\n
“The enemy continues to terrorise the border areas of the Sumy region, the
\ncity of Kharkiv and the (Donbas) region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr
\nZelensky said in his nightly address, describing Russia’s intensifying
\noffensive.<\/p>\n
“We need to break them. This is a difficult task, it requires time and
\nsuperhuman efforts. But we have no alternative.”<\/p>\n
With the war now well into its fifth month, Ukraine told a reconstruction
\nconference in Switzerland on Monday that it would already cost $750 billion
\nto rebuild the country.<\/p>\n
“The key source of recovery should be the confiscated assets of Russia and
\nRussian oligarchs,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told leaders of dozens of
\ncountries in Lugano.<\/p>\n
In a video address, Zelensky described rebuilding Ukraine as the “common task
\nof the whole democratic world” and the “biggest contribution to the support
\nof global peace.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Most modern weapons’ –<\/p>\n
The loss of Lysychansk over the weekend prompted Zelensky to step up calls
\nfor an increased supply of weapons from the West so Kyiv can keep up the
\nresistance and regain lost territories.<\/p>\n
After giving up on its initial war aim of capturing Kyiv following tough
\nUkrainian resistance, Russia has focused its efforts on securing control of
\nthe Donetsk and Lugansk areas which make up the Donbas region.<\/p>\n
Moscow’s capture of Lysychansk — one week after the Ukrainian army also
\nretreated from the neighbouring city of Severodonetsk — frees up Russian
\nforces to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk.<\/p>\n
Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gayday said on Telegram that there was still
\nfighting in the town of Bilogorivka outside Lysychansk.<\/p>\n
“We keep defending a small part of the Lugansk region so that our army could
\nbuild protective redoubts,” he added.<\/p>\n
In his address late Sunday, Zelensky vowed Kyiv would fight on and ensure the
\nmilitary had “the most modern weapons”.<\/p>\n
“Ukraine will reach the level when the fire superiority of the occupiers will
\nbe levelled.”<\/p>\n
In a symbolic boost, the Ukrainian flag was raised on Snake Island, an rocky
\noutcrop in the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew from the strategically
\nimportant Ukrainian territory last week.<\/p>\n
In Sloviansk, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) west of Lysychansk, there were
\nfew people on the streets on Monday, the day after Russian strikes that left
\nat least six dead, among them a nine-year-old girl, and 19 injured.<\/p>\n
In the large downtown market largely ravaged by a fire caused by a Russian
\nstrike, a few vendors offered basic goods while others cleared charred
\ndebris.<\/p>\n
Vendors and residents who spoke to AFP, some still in shock, expressed
\nconcern for the days and weeks to come, as sounds of shelling were heard
\nagain.<\/p>\n
The city of Siversk, 30 kilometres west of Lysychansk, also saw overnight
\nshelling, residents and an official told AFP.<\/p>\n
– Reconstruction –<\/p>\n
But Zelensky’s address Sunday evening was defiant, predicting Ukrainian
\ntroops would “win back” territory in the Donbas just has they had in other
\nregions earlier in the war.<\/p>\n
On Monday, leaders from dozens of countries and international organisations
\nmet in the Swiss city of Lugano with the aim of hashing out a roadmap for
\nUkraine’s reconstruction.<\/p>\n
Lugano is not a pledging conference but will instead attempt to lay out the
\nprinciples and priorities for a rebuilding process aimed to begin even as the
\nwar rages.<\/p>\n
“Ukraine can emerge from this on a path towards a stronger and more modern
\ncountry,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n
But for residents in Bucha — a Ukrainian town synonymous with war crimes
\nblamed on Moscow’s forces after their retreat in April — fear remains even
\nas talk begins of reconstruction.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to bed without knowing if we’ll wake up tomorrow,” said Vera
\nSemeniouk, 65.<\/p>\n
“Everyone has come back, is starting to repair houses, many are putting in
\nnew windows. It would be terrible if it started again, and we had to leave
\neverything again.”<\/p>\n
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, making her first visit to
\nUkraine, visited Bucha on Monday.BSS\/AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered Russian troops to press their offensive deeper into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after Moscow’s forces seized the strategic city of Lysychansk. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin at a meeting that Moscow’s forces were now in full control of the Lugansk region. In a sign there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28355,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28353\/revisions\/28355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}