In the small town of Kreminna, the Russian army “marched in with a huge amount of war material” on Monday night, said the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajdaj, on Monday on Facebook. “Our defenders have retreated to new positions,” he added. Attacks in Kharkiv killed three.
Four civilians shot dead trying to escape
The governor previously reported that Russian forces had advanced as far as Kreminna. “In the night the enemy was able to advance to Kreminna, but he could not establish himself there. The fighting right in the city continues,” it said. The governor said four civilians were shot while trying to escape from Kreminna. They wanted to flee the city in their car.
The small town of Kreminna with 18,000 inhabitants is located around 50 kilometers north-east of the city of Kramatorsk and near the currently heavily contested town of Rubishne. Reporters from the AFP news agency reported on Monday about violent explosions in Rubishne, some of which caused fires. Huge clouds of smoke rose above the city. Ukrainian soldiers fired artillery and mortar shells at Russian positions in Rubishne from the town of Novodrushesk, about three kilometers away.
The head of the pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk, Lenoid Pasechnik, said last week that the Ukrainian army still controls “a part” of Rubishne. As soon as his fighters “liberated” the entire area, a decision would be made “to provide help to our brothers in Donetsk and possibly to Russia,” Pasechnik said.
“literally finish off and destroy”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Sunday evening of wanting to “literally finish off and destroy” the entire Donbass region. The Russian army is currently preparing a new major offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian General Staff announced in its situation report that this was almost over. “In the eastern theater of operations, the armed forces of the Russian Federation are completing the formation of an assault force,” it said.
According to the authorities, at least three people were killed in renewed Russian attacks on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. According to prosecutors, a grenade hit a playground in a residential area on Monday, killing a woman and a man. According to the director of a medical emergency aid center, another dead and six were injured in an attack on a humanitarian aid center. According to the authorities, six people were killed and 24 others injured in Russian attacks in Kharkiv on Sunday. Three other people were killed in the Kharkiv region.
Kyiv and Lviv under fire
There were “five violent rocket attacks at once on the civilian infrastructure of the old European city of Lviv,” wrote Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Twitter. At least six people died and others were injured. There were also reports of Russian rocket attacks on Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk.
Eleven people were injured in the attacks in Lviv, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyj said on Facebook. He did not specify where the rockets hit, but he said at least one civilian object was hit.
A resident of south-west Lviv told the AFP news agency that he had seen thick clouds of gray smoke rising from behind residential buildings. “The Russians continue to barbarously attack Ukrainian cities from the air,” Podoliak wrote. According to the head of the Ukrainian railway company, Alexander Kamyshin, the attack also damaged railway infrastructure.
There were different statements about the number of missiles. Sadowyj spoke of a total of five hits, regional governor Maxym Kosyzkyj of four rockets. Three of them hit military objects, one was shot down at a civilian object, a tire service, he said. In addition, a hotel and around 40 cars are said to have been damaged.
Several detonations in Kyiv
A Reuters reporter reported several detonations in Kyiv. According to local authorities, several explosions were also heard in Dnipropetrovsk in the eastern part of the country. The broadcaster Suspilne reported two wounded in attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Lviv, which is close to the Polish border, has become a haven for refugees. Western embassies were also moved from Kyiv to Lviv at the beginning of the war. The historic old town of Lviv is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lviv has been the target of air raids in the past. There are several military facilities in the vicinity of the city. In addition, Russian forces also shelled a fuel depot. Lviv is also considered an important transhipment point for arms deliveries from the West. Russia had named these arms shipments as a legitimate target for its own airstrikes and recently threatened to intensify its fight against these shipments.
For the second day in a row, Ukrainian and Russian troops have been unable to agree on evacuation corridors for civilians in the contested areas. “For security reasons, the decision was made today not to open any humanitarian corridors,” said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Monday. Long negotiations had been held the day before without any result. She accused the Russian side of shelling escape routes. Most recently, almost 1,500 people reached safe areas via such routes on Saturday.
According to the Defense Ministry, Russian forces used Iskander missiles to destroy four depots for weapons and military equipment in Ukraine. This is reported by the Tass news agency. In addition, three Ukrainian military aircraft and eleven drones were shot down. The Russian armed forces had hit a total of 315 targets since the evening.
Source: Nachrichten
