After the new package of financial sanctions of the European Unionwhich will imply an embargo on most of the oil imported from Russia, Washington increased its military aid to kyiv.
The president of United States, Joe Biden, he wrote Tuesday in The New York Times that they were going to provide “more advanced missile systems and munitions that will allow them to more accurately strike key targets on the battlefield.”
A senior White House official specified that these are the Himars systems, which consist of multiple rocket launchers mounted on light armored vehicles that will use precision-guided munitions with a range of 80 km.
The equipment is part of a new $700 million round of US military assistance to Ukraine, details of which will be revealed on Wednesday.
Concerned about not being considered a belligerent party in the conflict, Biden insisted that he is not giving Ukraine “the means to attack outside its borders.”
For specialists, Himars missiles can alter the balance of forces on the ground just as the Ukrainian army retreats into Donbas.
In this mining area in eastern Ukraine, partially controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists, the city of Severodonetsk seems on the verge of falling into the hands of Russia.
“Unfortunately, today (Tuesday) the Russian soldiers control most of the city,” said Sergei Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, assuring that the city was “90% destroyed.”
This official also asked the inhabitants to remain in shelter and prepare “protective masks” after a Russian attack hit “a tank with nitric acid in a chemical plant” in this industrial city.
“Taking into account the presence of large-scale chemical production in Severodonetsk, the Russian army’s attacks on this city, blind aerial bombardment, are simply insane“said the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to the governor, the intensity of the fighting makes it impossible to evacuate Severodonetsk where, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, there are still some 12,000 civilians out of the 100,000 pre-war inhabitants.
According to the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, Ganna Malyar, one of Moscow’s objectives is “to surround the Ukrainian troops and complicate the situation, later blackmailing us with these encircled troops.”
Pulling back in the east, Ukrainian forces made sure to regain ground in the south, especially in the region around Khersona city near crimea which was the first major Russian conquest in early March.
With ceasefire negotiations long stalled, diplomatic maneuvering is focused on unblocking Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and allowing the export of stalled hundreds of tons of grain, fueling fears of a global food crisis.
Source: Ambito
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