The Ukrainian leadership has called on civilians in the occupied south of the country to flee because of planned army offensives. Residents of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions must urgently leave their homes — if necessary, towards the Crimean peninsula, which has been annexed by Russia since 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Wereshchuk said Sunday evening. This was necessary to prevent people from being endangered during imminent attempts at reconquest.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had ordered the military to recapture southern territory occupied by Western weapons. The coastal areas in particular are of great importance to the Ukrainian economy. Selenskyj has repeatedly stressed in the past that his country wants to take back the regions controlled by Russia.
Apparently American weapons have been destroyed
Meanwhile, Russian troops say they killed up to 100 enemy soldiers in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have shot down 242 Ukrainian aircraft and 137 helicopters since the start of the war. However, according to media reports, before the war, Ukraine had only about 100 planes and 90 helicopters in its fleet.
According to Russia, it also destroyed a warehouse in Ukraine containing weapons from the United States. Russian forces have hit two halls near the village of Konstantinovka in the Donbass, where M777 howitzers were parked, the defense ministry in Moscow said.
Civilians buried in apartment building
According to Ukrainian information, more than 30 people have been buried in a collapsed apartment building in the city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region during further Russian missile strikes. The five-story house was shelled by Russian missiles the night before, Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram news channel on Sunday.
The local rescue service reported on the online network Facebook that 15 dead and 24 injured had already been pulled from the rubble. “There are at least three dozen people in the ruins,” Kyrylenko said.
None of the information could be independently verified. However, the Russian Defense Ministry itself reported on the shelling of Chasiv Yar on Saturday. Russia repeatedly claims that it does not shoot civilian objects.
Selenskyj pushes for more weapons
Russian forces are now increasingly focusing on the Donetsk region during the invasion ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on February 24 after he took the Luhansk region. With Moscow’s help, the pro-Russian separatists want to wrest the entire Donbass from Kiev.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urgently demands the delivery of heavy weapons from the West to prevent the loss of further parts of the country and regain lost territories.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
