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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made another plea to his allies for more weapons to boost the defence of Donbas.
Fierce battles have continued to rage in eastern Ukraine with Russian troops on the verge of encircling a key industrial city, bringing a sharp rebuke of the west from Volodymyr Zelensky for not doing enough to help Kyiv win the war.
As the Ukrainian military reported on Thursday that 40 towns in the Donbas region were under Russian bombardment, Luhansk governor Sergiy Gaiday described fighting outside Sievierodonetsk, as a key military goal for Russia, as “very difficult”, saying Russian troops were shelling the city from the outskirts with mortars.
“The coming week will be decisive,” Gaiday said in a video posted on Telegram, adding he believes Russia’s goal is to “capture the Luhansk region no matter what cost”.
“There is a colossal amount of shelling,” he added.
Having failed to seize Ukraine’s capital or its second city, Kharkiv, after invading in February, Russia is trying to take full control of the Donbas, comprised of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
Russia has poured thousands of troops into the region, attacking from three sides in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces holding out in Sievierodonetsk and its twin, Lysychansk.
Their fall would leave the whole of Luhansk province under Russian control, a key Kremlin war aim.
“The occupiers shelled more than 40 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk region, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and a school.
As a result of this shelling five civilians died and 12 were wounded,” the joint task force of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Facebook.
The statement said 10 enemy attacks were repelled, four tanks and four drones destroyed, and 62 “enemy soldiers” were killed.
Zelensky said in his nightly address on Wednesday that Russian troops “heavily outnumber us” in some parts of the east and echoed pleas from his foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba to the World Economic Forum in Davos for more weaponry from the west.
FURTHER READING:
“We need the help of our partners – above all, weapons for Ukraine. Full help, without exceptions, without limits, enough to win,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.
And he called out the international community for paying too much attention to Russia’s interests and too little to Ukraine’s.
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