KYIV, Ukraine – Russian forces on Sunday pressed hard to capture the town of Sievierodonetsk, one of the last hurdles to capturing the Luhansk region. But as usual in this fierce war of attrition, the Russian Army is struggling as Ukrainian forces launch counterattacks and retake several towns.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who said he visited frontline troops near Sievierodonetsk on Sunday, said fighting was taking place in the streets and the situation was “extremely difficult.” The city is largely in ruins, and thousands of civilians are still sheltering in the basements there.
The capture of Sievierodonetsk would hand over the Luhansk region to Russian forces and their local separatist allies, who also control much of neighboring Donetsk. But their inability to land quickly and their persistent vulnerability to uncompromising Ukrainian fighters show once again that Russia’s war planning has not lived up to Moscow’s expectations.
Even as it struggles in the east, Moscow issued a reminder on Sunday that it retains the strength to attack much of Ukraine, hitting the capital Kyiv for the first time in more than a month. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, angered by the imminent arrival of long-range missiles from the West to Ukraine, has warned that Moscow can hit targets unscathed so far.
Even in the majority Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine, the brutality of the Russian campaign – using what Mr Zelensky calls “continuous air strikes, artillery and rocket fire” – has created fierce resistance, enduring anti-Russian sentiment and a new Ukrainian nationalism. .
Serhiy Hadai, governor of the Luhansk region, on Sunday said Ukrainian forces had recaptured about half of Sievierodonetsk, an assertion that is difficult to verify. He said he was looking for more Western supplies of longer-range artillery and missile systems to be able to mass attack Russian artillery that was hitting Ukrainian positions from afar.
“As soon as we have enough long-range Western weapons, we will push their artillery out of our position,” Hadai said. “And then, believe me, Russian infantry, they will run.”
But even if they didn’t run, Russia made slow, bloody advances in its more limited goals to the east, failing to capture Kyiv, Kharkiv or the vital port south of Odesa.
The prospect of more modern, more precise long-range weapons has clearly caught Putin’s attention. In parts of the interview published on Sunday, he threatened “To hit targets that we have never hit before” if Western countries supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles, but he did not provide specifics.
Speaking on state-run Rossiya TV channel, Putin was asked about the US’ announcement that it would provide Ukraine with a more sophisticated missile system that can hit targets some 40 kilometers away. Even while warning of new Russian targets, he sought to downplay missile deliveries, suggesting that Western nations were just replenishing the same arsenal that Ukraine had already depleted.
Russia was very angry at the US decision to supply Ukraine HIMARS . truck mounted multiple launch rocket system, with missiles with a range of up to 40 miles, greater than anything Ukraine currently possesses. Since the invasion, the Pentagon has provided Ukraine with 108 M777 howitzers. However, the range of the HIMARS missile is more than twice that of the 155 mm shell.
“All the fuss around the supply of more weapons, in my opinion, has only one goal: to reduce the armed conflict as much as possible,” Putin said.
As the fighting continued with no evidence that it might be coming to an end, Kyiv was hit by a Russian missile early Sunday for the first time in five weeks, depriving it of its relative sense of security. . At least five missiles hit near Darnytsia and Pozniaky train stations, a residential area, injuring one person.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the missile hit a railway repair shop and destroyed an unspecified number of Soviet-era T-72 tanks delivered by Eastern European countries. Poland and the Czech Republic have sent hundreds of such tanks to Ukraine. Ukrainian officials denied that any tanks were destroyed.
“I officially declare that there is no military equipment on the territory of the Darnytsia Automobile Repair Plant,” the head of the board of the Ukrainian railway company, Oleksandr Kamyshin, wrote on Telegram. “This factory repairs gondolas and grain carts, which we use for export.”
Neither claim can be verified, but for Ukraine, whose ports are blocked in the east, grain trucks may be the only way left to bring in much-needed food stocks. theirs to the world. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the United States was warning foreign governments that Russia was trying to sell looted Ukrainian grain to countries in need.
Happy Palace some powerful explosions early Sunday in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, miles away the creaking windows. Kramatorsk, which serves as the provincial capital for Ukrainian-controlled areas in the Donetsk region, has been hit by rockets several times but has escaped sweeping devastation in other towns. There were no reports of injuries in Sunday’s attack, which hit industrial sites.
How Putin and Zelensky decide when to resume talks, and on what basis, continues to be an important issue of debate. President Emmanuel Macron of France was harshly criticized by Ukrainian officials and some European leaders when he reiterated his position on Saturday that Mr Putin should not be humiliated, to be easily achieved. a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Russo-Ukrainian War: Main developments
“We must not humiliate Russia so that the day the fighting stops, we can build a way out through diplomatic channels,” Macron said. France’s role, he said, is “as an intermediary power”, adding that he has devoted “time and energy” to ensuring the conflict does not escalate into a broader war, including the negotiating with Mr. Putin about more than 100 hours.
The fallout from that interview with regional newspapers continued on Sunday, with Ukrainian and Central and Eastern European politicians saying essentially that Mr. Putin had humiliated himself and that he must be seen as failed in Ukraine to ensure that Russia did not continue the war. at a later stage, or even decide to expand it to other countries.
Others argued that Mr. Macron’s hours of talks with Putin were of little value, that the war was not yet ripe for negotiation and that France had excluded itself from the role of mediator.
There are clear divisions between countries like Poland and the Baltic states, which experienced Soviet occupation and see greater danger in a clearly undefeatable Russia. Obviously, and Western European countries such as France, Germany and Italy, support Ukraine but are hurt by rising inflation. and economic sanctions against Russia, and wants the war to end more quickly through negotiations.
Gérard Araud, a recently retired senior French diplomat, said in a Twitter message Talking about that humiliation is not the point. The real question, he said, is: “How to defeat Russia while offering a way out? To avoid a permanent war, the temptation of escalation and the complete destruction of Ukraine. ”
Mr. Araud writes in English.
“The word ‘humiliation’ gives the debate an emotional and moral tone, it’s a dead end,” he said. “In foreign policy, at the end of a war, there are winners and losers, or in this case, more likely to happen than stalemate. A stalemate means a ceaseless war or a compromise.”
Helene von Bismarck, a German historian, said that what upsets Mr Macron most when talking about humiliation “is not only that it sounds callous, after Bucha, but it is another example of how discuss the long-term relationship with Russia as if it were not affected by the short-term development of the war. “
But the tension of the protracted war is evident even in Estonia, where prime minister Kaja Kallas has been one of the most outspoken voices calling for a Russian defeat and Putin’s isolation. .
Ms Kallas dissolved her coalition government on Saturday, sacking seven Center ministers from her 15-person cabinet, including foreign minister Eva-Maria Liimets. The sacking of the Center ministers follows weeks of political deadlock, including a vote on an education bill in which the Center voted against the government and with a far-right opposition party.
Ms. Kallas, who is seeking to form a new coalition to avoid an early election, cited the need for unity in this fight to explain her actions. She said she hopes the fight “will open up to all parties in parliament the importance of a shared understanding of the threats to us as a neighboring country.” neighbors with Russia.”
Valerie Hopkins reported from Kyiv, and Steven Erlanger from Brussels. Report contributed from Andrew E. Kramer from Kramatorsk, Ukraine; Neil MacFarquhar from Istanbul; and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia.
