Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of a war of annihilation. After visiting the front, he spoke of serious damage in the city of Kharkiv and reported destruction in Donbass.
Selenski had announced that he would also speak about it at an EU summit in Brussels starting this Monday. Monday is the 96th day of the war. Russia attacked neighboring Ukraine on February 24.
After an unannounced visit to the embattled region of Kharkiv in the east of the country, Zelensky was shocked. “Black, burned-out, half-ruined apartment buildings face east and north with their windows – to where Russian artillery fired from,” he said in a video message.
Russia not only lost the battle for Kharkiv, but also for Kyiv and northern Ukraine. “It has lost its own future and any cultural ties to the free world. They’re all burned.”
The trip to Kharkiv was Zelensky’s first known visit to the front since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. During the visit, he fired the local head of the domestic secret service SBU, Zelenski said: “Because he hasn’t worked to protect the city since the first days of the war, he only thought of himself.” The case was handed over to the judiciary .
Lavrov: Donbass is “unconditional priority” for Russia
Zelensky also accused Russia of extensively destroying the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Donbass. The entire infrastructure was destroyed, he said in the video message. “90 percent of the houses are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed.”
According to the Ukrainian president, Russia not only lost the battle for Kharkiv, but also for Kyiv and northern Ukraine.
(Photo: IMAGO/CTK Photo)
The city is constantly under attack. Zelensky said Moscow wanted to hoist its flag on the administrative building of Sieverodonetsk, which is located on the Boulevard of Friendship of Nations there. “How bitter that name sounds now.” Sievjerodonetsk has been the target of attacks for months. The city is considered the last point that the Ukrainian military still controls in the Luhansk region.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described taking Donbass as an “unconditional priority”. It is about pushing the Ukrainian army and battalions out of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Moscow recognizes as independent states, Lavrov said in an interview with the French broadcaster TF1, according to the Russian foreign ministry. The ministry published the answers on Sunday on the website.
In the interview, Lavrov again spoke of an alleged “liberation” of the Donbass from the “Kiev regime”. He also responded to a question about Putin’s health. The President appears in public every day, said the Foreign Minister.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called taking Donbass an “unconditional priority”
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
“You can watch him on the screens, read and hear his performances. I don’t think sensible people can see signs of illness or malaise in this person.”
Ukrainian authorities report on offensive in the south of the country
Russian airstrikes were also reported from other regions of Ukraine on Sunday night. The Ukrainian army reported heavy fighting in the area around the provincial capital Donetsk and around Lyman in the north.
The Russian military announced on Saturday that it had taken the important Lyman railway junction, but Ukrainian authorities said fighting continued in parts of the city. “The enemy is strengthening its units,” said the Ukrainian general staff in a situation report. “He’s trying to gain a foothold in the area.”
According to the Ukrainian military, it continued its offensive in the south of the country during the night. “The situation in the south is dynamic and tense,” said the high command of the Ukrainian military district south on Monday night on its Facebook page.
Combat operations in Ukraine
Russia is assembling reserves and trying to fortify the front lines in the Kherson region. “At the same time, our units continue their offensive activities to tie down the enemy and prevent regrouping of reserves.”
According to the authorities, several civilians were killed or wounded in attacks on Ukrainian locations. Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kirilenko blamed Russia for three dead and four injured in the government-held part of the region in the east of the country. In Mykolayiv in the south of the country, the authorities spoke of at least one death in an attack on a residential area. Russia denies attacking civilian targets.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
The General Staff in Kyiv announced that the Ukrainian army had fended off 14 Russian attacks in the Donbass. It said more than 60 Russian soldiers were killed and tanks and artillery destroyed. The information is not independently verifiable.
Gauck for supporting Ukraine with arms
According to the former German President Joachim Gauck, arms deliveries to the Ukraine are important for their fight for freedom against the Russian attackers. “Without the weapons of the Allies in World War II, there would have been a Europe under Nazi rule,” Gauck said in an interview with “Bild” (Monday).
The former Federal President considers arms deliveries to Ukraine to be important.
(Photo: IMAGO/Rolf Poss)
Ukraine must be allowed to say what it needs to oppose Russia. Nevertheless, politicians must continue to talk to Russia’s President Putin. “Responsible politics must also talk to dictators,” said Gauck. “We must never do without diplomacy.”
Eurovision winners auction trophy to benefit Ukraine
The Ukrainian winners of the Eurovision Song Contest said they auctioned off their competition trophy to benefit their home country’s army. “A special thanks to Team Whitebit, who bought the trophy for $900,000 and are now the legal owners of our trophy,” the band Kalush Orchestra said on Sunday evening.
The band Kalush Orchestra won the competition.
(Photo: dpa)
Whitebit is a Ukrainian company that operates a crypto exchange, an online trading platform where cryptocurrencies can be bought, sold and exchanged. Since 2008, the winners have been presented with a glass microphone trophy. Kalush Orchestra won the 66th ESC in Turin in mid-May with the song “Stefania”.
That brings the day
The ongoing dispute over plans for a European oil embargo against Russia threatens to overshadow the EU summit that begins in Brussels on Monday. In Berlin, the planned special fund of the Bundeswehr could be further debated.
Union and coalition had agreed on Sunday evening on the legal basis for the planned special fund in the amount of 100 billion euros.
More: You can read all current developments on the Ukraine war in our news blog.