Kyiv According to the Russian military, it has captured the strategically important small town of Lyman in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday reported the city’s complete “liberation” by units of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian Armed Forces. The Ukrainian general staff also indirectly admitted the fall of the city on Saturday.
The 20,000-inhabitant town of Lyman in the Donetsk region claimed by the pro-Russian separatists serves as a railway junction and road link to the nearby Sievarodonetsk metropolitan areas. Lysychansk and Sloviansk – Kramatorsk important. The latter area is considered one of the centers of the Donbass and the Ukrainian army units in the east of the country. The Ukrainian army is under heavy pressure almost everywhere in the extreme east of its front against the invading Russian forces.
During a telephone conversation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. That carries the risk of further destabilizing the situation and worsening the humanitarian crisis, Putin said, according to a statement released by the Kremlin on Saturday. In the 80-minute conversation, Scholz and Macron again called for an end to the war, as the spokesman for the federal government, Steffen Hebestreit, announced.
“The Chancellor and the French President pushed for an immediate ceasefire and a withdrawal of the Russian troops,” Hebestreit said. “They called on the Russian president to engage in serious direct negotiations with the Ukrainian president and find a diplomatic solution to the conflict.”
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The Kremlin said that the phone call also dealt in detail with food safety in the world. According to the federal government, Scholz and Macron complained about the tense situation on the global food market.
Zelenski: The situation is very difficult
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, described the situation in Donbass as very difficult in view of the Russian attacks. Moscow is using a maximum of artillery and reserves there, Zelensky said in a video speech. The Ukrainian army is defending the country with all currently available resources. “We are doing everything to strengthen the army,” assured the President.
Combat operations in Ukraine
As far as the currently fiercely contested locations in the Donbass are concerned, Zelensky was combative. “If the occupiers think that Lyman and Sieverodonetsk will be theirs, they are mistaken. The Donbass will be Ukrainian.”
If Russia brings destruction and suffering, Ukraine will restore any place. Only the Ukrainian flag will fly there – and no other, Zelenski emphasized.
Kherson closes border with Ukrainian-controlled territory
The Cherson region in southern Ukraine, occupied by Russian troops, has closed the border to the north to refugees. “The border crossing in the direction of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts is very dangerous given the systematic shelling from Ukrainian militants,” said deputy head of the pro-Russian military administration Kirill Stremusov. Departures from the Cherson region are instead possible via the Crimean peninsula or the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhia region.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
The new administration has taken numerous initiatives to cut off the Kherson region from Ukraine and connect it to Russia. The Russian national currency, the ruble, was introduced, the administration has demanded the issuance of Russian passports and the entry of the region into the Russian Federation – even without a prior referendum.
Kremlin-installed officials have started broadcasting Russian news programs, Russian school curricula are being introduced and other steps are being taken to annex territories, it said. Russian news agency Ria Novosti quoted Russian-appointed deputy chief of administration Kirill Stremousov in Ukraine’s Kherson region on Saturday as saying that Russian-held areas there were using Moscow time.
Habeck rejects allegations of insufficient aid to Ukraine
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) rejects the accusation that Germany is too reluctant to help Ukraine. He told the “Welt am Sonntag”: “As we speak, Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on the Panzerhaubitze 2000.”
The Federal Minister of Economics considers the arms deliveries to Ukraine to be appropriate.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Germany will soon deliver these weapons to Ukraine. “So it is by no means the case that Germany is not delivering anything or too little.” It is true that Berlin cannot fulfill all of Ukraine’s wishes. “This creates a certain tension,” said Habeck.
Grain crisis as a result of the war
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured Ukrainian President Zelensky in a telephone call on Saturday that he would seek solutions with Western partners to counter the Russian ban on grain exports from Ukraine and thus avert a global famine. Downing Street officials said Johnson and Zelensky agreed that Russia had to lift the blockade and ensure safe shipping routes.
Because the grain cannot be exported at the moment, poorer importing countries in Africa, for example, are facing a major food crisis. Putin called Draghi on Thursday and demanded that the West lift its sanctions against Russia. Then Moscow would also be ready to let ships with grain and fertilizer pass through again from the ports on the Black Sea.
In view of the shortage of fuel in Ukraine, Zelensky said he also discussed energy supplies with Johnson. Many Ukrainians have been complaining for weeks that there is no more petrol at the gas stations.
More: You can read all current developments on the Ukraine war in our news blog.