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The Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is now under the "full occupation" of Russian forces following a weeks-long battle. Mayor Oleksand Stryuk said on national ...

economic damage" he would resign as he would have accepted he had "lost a very important argument". "Too many countries are saying this is a European war that is unnecessary... He underscored his personal support for Ukraine by telling the BBC that if the British government decided that "we had to abandon the Ukrainian cause because it was simply getting too difficult and... Mr Johnson, who is in the Rwandan capital Kigali for a Commonwealth summit, said the consequences of Russian President Vladimir Putin being able to get his way in Ukraine would be dangerous to international security and "a long-term economic disaster". The Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is now under the "full occupation" of Russian forces following a weeks-long battle. South of Lysychansk, Ukrainian soldiers were forced to retreat from the towns of Hirske and Zolote in the face of overwhelming Russian forces, according to an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

No running water, gas or electricity and apartment blocks destroyed at random… Now civilians in Ukraine's second biggest city are facing a new Russian ...

For many in Saltivka, the symbolic moves have made little difference to their daily struggle to survive and keep on going. Before the war, it was the biggest market in Europe and one of the busiest. Western leaders have started to warn that it might take years before the war winds down. Some of the few shops that remain open on the abandoned, rubbish-infested passageway there sell flowers. Over the past week, Kharkiv has experienced some of the worst Russian shelling it has seen to date, killing more than 15 people, as worries grow in Kyiv that Russia is now mounting another attack on the city. Somewhere on the front line was Marchenko’s son, she said, pointing to a small shrine she had made for him in her flat. “But now we see this was always the plan – to target civilian infrastructure.” Yet she calls herself one of the lucky ones. To make matters worse, the relative calmness that prompted Marchenko and others to return was, in the end, deceptive. “At least I am staying fit, but this is not how I was imagining my pension,” said Marchenko, who worked for 30 years at the local post office. Others emerged from the nearby underground metro stations that were turned into shelters where they had spent weeks living. Now, the neighbourhood feels like a ghost town.

The eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is "completely under Russian occupation," the city's head of military administration said Saturday, ...

The Russian goal appears to be to cut off Ukrainian forces in a pocket of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. It said '"Russian bombers hit directly from the territory of Belarus. Six Tu-22M3 aircraft were involved, which launched 12 Kh-22 cruise missiles." Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said: "The enemy continues to suffer significant losses. are under growing pressure from Russian forces that have taken territory to the south of the city. It said Ukrainian soldiers had stopped the advance of Russian infantry near Volodymyrivka, which is 5 kilometers from the highway. The head of the military administration said "about 10 missiles" had been shot down by Ukrainian defenders. But the two sides' versions of what was targeted differ. North of Sloviansk, the Ukrainian military reported continuing battles in areas that have been on the front lines for months. Severodonetsk was one of the last major Ukrainian strongholds in the area. "Civilians are leaving the territory of the Azot plant, they [the Russians] shoot propaganda videos with them. Regional military officials said Friday that the last troops in Severodonetsk had been ordered to leave, as it was impossible to keep defending their positions. We will facilitate the evacuation, but so far there is no such opportunity," Striuk said.

Dozens of Russian missiles have simultaneously hit military facilities in western and northern Ukraine, local officials say. Ukraine's military says attacks on ...

In the Chernihiv region, also in the north, governor Vyacheslav Chaus said the small town of Desna, which is home to a training centre for Ukraine’s infantry forces, had come under fire. “Nearly 30 missiles were launched at one military infrastructure facility very near to the city of Zhytomyr,” Bunechko said, adding that nearly 10 missiles had been intercepted and destroyed. “Russia is using the tactic … it used in Mariupol: wiping the city from the face of the earth. “The activities happening in the area of Severodonetsk are a tactical regrouping of our troops. “Around 5:00 o’clock in the morning (02:00 GMT) the Chernigiv region suffered a massive bombardment by missiles. Katyn is a Russian memorial.” Even less so after the frankly anti-Russian comments by Polish political leaders,” Andrei Borisov said on social media platform VKontakte. “They [Ukraine military] say they are moving to safe position, in order to be able to consolidate those positions, to put up some kind of defensive fight. Severodonetsk gives them a hold over that river but moving armoured personnel … and other equipment across has been very difficult for them.” So the Ukrainian forces are leaving for higher ground to continue the defence operations,” he said. “Today’s strike is directly linked to Kremlin efforts to pull Belarus as a co-belligerent into the war in Ukraine,” the intelligence service, which is part of the defence ministry, said on Telegram. Ukraine is regrouping its forces from the rubble of the city of Severodonetsk to higher ground in neighbouring Lysychansk to gain a tactical advantage over Russia, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has said.

This strike comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko are to meet on Saturday in Saint Petersburg in Russia.

"Many Su-25 (aircraft) are in service with the Belarusian army," said Putin. "They could be upgraded in an appropriate way. "There can't be a Polish flag on Russian monuments. "All essential infrastructure has been destroyed. "These people have lived almost three months of their lives in basements, shelters," he said. “Around 5:00 a.m. (2:00 GMT), the Chernigiv region came under massive missile bombardment. 90% of the city is damaged, 80% of the houses will have to be destroyed," he said. "I stressed the need to achieve fire parity with the enemy, which will allow us to stabilise the situation in the most threatened region of Lugansk," said commander-in-chief of Ukraine's army Valeriy Zaluzhnyi on Friday, after a conversation with US military officials. Kyiv has said it requires "fire parity" with Russian forces to "stabilise" the situation in the country's east, following its troop withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk. "Today's strike is directly linked to the Kremlin's efforts to draw Belarus into the war in Ukraine as a co-belligerent," said the Ukrainian Defence Ministry on Telegram. Moscow is now in almost complete control of the Lugansk region, which includes Severodonetsk, and "street fighting" is underway in the neighbouring city of Lysytchansk, according to Russian-backed separatists. The capture of Sievierodonetsk by the Russian army comes after several weeks of intense fighting in the region, which is fiercely hotly contested by Ukrainian and Russian forces. “The city is completely occupied by the Russians,” Striouk said in a televised address, after the Ukrainian army withdrew to the neighbouring town of Lyssytchansk yesterday.

Russia started the fifth month of its invasion with what Ukraine's army called a “massive bombardment,” including in far western areas some 800 miles from ...

KYIV/POKROVSK, Ukraine, June 25 (Reuters) - Russian forces fully occupied the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk on Saturday, both sides said, ...

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk were the last major Ukrainian bastions in Luhansk. It has also stoked an energy and food crisis which is shaking the global economy. Throughout whole Ukraine," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. "Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, cause panic." So the Ukrainian forces are leaving for higher ground to continue the defence operations." Yesterday we could not take it any more," she said. "Russia is using the tactic ... it used in Mariupol: wiping the city from the face of the earth," he said. The fall of Sievierodonetsk - once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland - was Russia's biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month. Oleksiy Arestovych, senior advisor to Zelenskiy, said some Ukrainian special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk directing artillery fire. But he made no mention of those forces putting up any direct resistance. read more President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed in a video address that Ukraine would win back the cities it lost. read more

Russia's army has "fully occupied" the key Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after weeks of fighting, its mayor said Saturday, as Russian President Vladimir ...

"These people have spent almost three months of their lives in basements, shelters," he said. Russia said Saturday its troops had killed up to 80 Polish fighters in strikes on a factory in Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region, a claim that could not be verified. "Ukraine can win and it will win," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a statement on the eve of the summit. Twenty rockets "fired from the territory of Belarus and from the air" targeted the village of Desna in the northern Chernigiv region, Ukraine's northern military command said. Putin has several times referred to nuclear weapons since his country launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, in what the West has seen as a warning to the West not to intervene. "Street fighting is currently taking place," a representative of the separatists, Andrei Marochko, said on Telegram, in a claim that could not be independently verified.

A secretive operation involving U.S. Special Operations forces hints at the scale of the effort to assist Ukraine's still outgunned military.

The former Trump administration official said Special Operations Command had small groups of American operators working in the field with Ukrainian officials before the war. Since 2014, when Russia first invaded parts of the country, Ukraine has expanded its small special forces from a single unit to three brigades and a training regiment. The modern special operations teams mainly focused on training in small-unit tactics but also worked on communications, battlefield medicine, reconnaissance and other skills requested by Ukrainian forces. American troops need six to eight weeks to learn how to use the systems, but the Ukrainians have a two-week accelerated training program, he said. They are the most advanced weapons the United States has so far supplied Ukraine, with rockets that have a range of up to 40 miles, greater than anything Ukraine has now. But the agency’s expertise in training is in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, former intelligence officials say. The cell, which was modeled after a structure used in Afghanistan, is part of a broader set of operational and intelligence coordination cells run by the Pentagon’s European Command to speed allied assistance to Ukrainian troops. Most of their work has been in Kyiv, according to current and former officials. Ukraine remains outgunned, and on Saturday, Russian forces unleashed a barrage of missiles on targets across the country, including in areas in the north and west that have been largely spared in recent weeks. “They have absolutely banded together in a much outsized impact” to support Ukraine’s military and special forces. But the signs of their stealthy logistics, training and intelligence support are tangible on the battlefield. Several lower-level Ukrainian commanders recently expressed appreciation to the United States for intelligence gleaned from satellite imagery, which they can call up on tablet computers provided by the allies.

Ukrainian military intelligence said 12 missiles were fired from Russian Tu-22M3 bombers flying over Belarus, marking the first time that Belarusian ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. The fight: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but underequipped Ukrainian forces. Five miles south of Severodonetsk, Ukrainian defenders have been digging trenches around Lysychansk this past week to seal the city to everyone but military and humanitarian rescue missions. The outcome is a symbolic and territorial victory for Moscow. “By what right or by what logic does Russia insist on inspecting Ukrainian sovereign ships leaving Ukrainian ports going to other countries?” Blinken said. Top Western diplomats are also working to resolve Russia’s Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, although a path forward remains elusive. Ukraine’s “professional, tactical retrograde” should not be taken as a sign of defeat, a senior U.S. official said, because Russia has made only incremental gains while a large number of its troops have been killed. The Belarusian leader raised the issue of Belarus hosting nuclear weapons late last year. Ukrainian military intelligence said 12 missiles were fired from Russian Tu-22M3 bombers flying over Belarus. It was the first time, the Ukrainians said, that Belarusian airspace has been used for such an attack. A military base near the western Ukrainian town of Yavoriv was hit by four Russian missiles fired from the Black Sea, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said. Over the next few months we will send Belarus the Iskander-M tactical missile systems which can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear rendition,” Putin said, according to Interfax. He added that the two countries must ensure their security. Details of casualties were not immediately known, but at least 35 people were killed in a similar attack on Yavoriv in March. Missile strikes were also reported on Chernihiv and Zhytomyr in the north, with a total of 48 missiles launched, according to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.

A Ukrainian soldier was killed and another injured as Russian troops fired over 40 missiles at Chernihiv as well as Zhytomyr regions on Saturday.

He also stated that these missiles were fired by the Russian military from the territory of Belarus. "We awoke this morning to the loud blast sounds. The missiles were launched with the help of aircraft that entered from Belarus," Sukhomlyn stated, Ukrinform reported. They fired more than 40 missiles at the region's territory," Bunechko wrote on Telegram. According to reports, military infrastructure facilities were also damaged during the attack.

Russia missiles struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday, a day after a key eastern city fell to pro-Russian forces in a major set-back for Ukraine and ...

Two more blasts were heard on the southern outskirts of the city later in the day, a Reuters reporter said. Moscow says the Donbas' Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, where it has backed uprisings since 2014, are independent countries. Yesterday we could not take it any more," she said. "There are people under the rubble," Klitschko said. Now they're trying to rescue her mother." "They have pulled out a seven-year-old girl.

Moscow is closing in on the city of Lysychansk. Kyiv's mayor reported several explosions.

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. “No Russian missiles, no strikes can break the morale of Ukrainians,” Zelensky said during his nightly address, vowing to liberate every Ukrainian city occupied by Russia. The fight: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but underequipped Ukrainian forces.

At least five people wounded after a residential building in the capital was targeted as G7 summit begins.

Then too, Russian aggression against Ukraine dominated the agenda a year after Moscow’s invasion of Crimea. In a separate statement, the British government said that the restriction will apply to newly mined or refined gold. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”. A German government source said leaders were discussing a possible price cap on Russian oil imports. “There are people under the rubble. G7 summit must respond with more sanctions on Russia and more heavy arms for Ukraine,” Kuleba said on Twitter. G7 summit must respond with more sanctions on Russia and more heavy arms for Ukraine. Russia’s sick imperialism must be defeated.pic.twitter.com/0kn2hl7A4x Vitali Klitschko said that four people were hospitalized, including a seven-year old girl. Now her mother is being rescued. “Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia,” Biden said on Twitter. She is alive. Many more around Ukraine are under strikes.

Strikes hit Shevchenkivskiy district of Ukraine capital, says mayor Vitali Klitschko; G7 leaders to discuss energy and food crisis at Bavarian retreat.

He is expected to emphasise the difficulties his troops are facing in eastern Ukraine as well as the need for heavier long-range weapons. Their talks were “a good opportunity to affirm the deep and enduring ties between our two countries. They’re making the sacrifice. This is something that it’s worth us standing up for together. They’re making the effort. But the most incredible thing about the way the West has responded to the invasion of Ukraine by Putin has been the unity - Nato has been solid, the G7 has been solid and we continue to be solid. He added that several people had already been hospitalised. I never believed in my lifetime that I would see a German Chancellor stepping up in the way that Olaf Scholz has and sending weaponry to help the Ukrainians to to protect themselves. In terms of the meeting agenda, expect that Russia and Ukraine are going to be at the top of the list, including our continued close coordination on the political and diplomatic front,” the official said. Speaking at the G7 summit in Germany, Boris Johnson stressed the need for continued unity in response to the war in Ukraine. He said: “Realistically there is going to be fatigue in populations and politicians.” “I want to compliment you for stepping up as you did when you became chancellor” and “the way you had a great impact on the rest of Europe to move, particularly relating to Ukraine,” Biden told Scholz. “We have to stay together,” Biden told Scholz at a meeting ahead of the G7 summit in the German Alps.