#luhansk

100 days in.

Under the cut: Ukrainian forces have recaptured around 20% of the territory they lost in Sievierodonetsk (previously Russia held 70% of the city); UN says that 14 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes, 5.3 million Ukrainians have fled from Ukraine to other countries; Russia shells Luhansk Oblast; Two Reuters journalists were injured and their driver was killed when they came under fire near the city of Severodonetsk; President Joe Biden said it was up to Ukraine when asked whether the nation needs to cede part of its territory to achieve peace and end the Russian invasion; Update on various regions across Ukraine still under attack, with map of the changes over the last day or so.

“Ukrainian forces have recaptured around 20% of the territory they lost in Sievierodonetsk since Russia’s invasion, according to Ukrainian officials.

“Whereas before the situation was difficult, the percentage (held by Russia) was somewhere around 70%, now we have already pushed them back by approximately 20%,” Serhiy Gaidai, the head of the eastern region of Luhansk, announced on national television on Friday.

Gaidai said that Russian forces were attacking and advancing upon Ukrainian positions for hours, only to be driven back by defenders who were not injured.

“This is how they are moving forward, step-by-step, because with artillery, aircraft, mortars, they are simply destroying everything,” he said.

“But as soon as we have enough Western long-range weapons, we will push their artillery away from our positions. And then, believe me, the Russian infantry, they will just run.”

Since the invasion, Russian forces have swarmed into the city in attempts to capture it in order to achieve its stated aim of controlling the entire Luhansk province. On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that Ukrainian forces have had some recent successes in the region.”-via The Guardian

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“14 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, the majority women and children, said the United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine Amin Awad on Friday.

In a statement released on the 100th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Awad spoke of displaced Ukrainians, describing the “scale and speed of [their] displacement not witnessed in history.””-via The Guardian

5.3 million Ukrainians have fled from Ukraine to other countries.-via Frontex

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“Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, said that Russian forces had conducted an airstrike on Myrna Dolyna, while Lysychansk was pounded by artillery, killing one woman.

Nine houses have been damaged in Sievierodonetsk alone, where fighting is continuing in the city centre.

Two houses have been damaged in Lysychansk, as well as a fire station, including both its structural elements and vehicles. In particular, four fire engines which could have been attending to fires and saving lives. In Hirske, 16 houses have been destroyed, six in Zolote, and three in Toshkivka.

Yesterday (2 June) morning, an enemy artillery shell killed a woman in Lysychansk.“

Details: According to Zaika, 60% of all infrastructure and residential buildings in Lysychansk have been destroyed.”-via Pravda

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“Two Reuters journalists were injured when they came under fire near the city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, a Reuters spokesperson confirmed to CNN in a statement Friday.

The driver of the vehicle they were traveling in was killed, the spokesperson said.

“In the course of a reporting trip, two Reuters journalists sustained minor injuries when they came under fire while enroute to Sevierodonetsk. They were traveling in a vehicle provided by the Russian-backed separatists and driven by an individual assigned by the separatists. The driver of the vehicle was killed,” the Reuters spokesperson said.

“Reuters extends its deepest sympathies to the family of the driver for their loss,” the spokesperson said.”-via CNN

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“US President Joe Biden said it was up to Ukraine when asked whether the nation needs to cede part of its territory to achieve peace and end the Russian invasion, telling reporters Friday that “I’m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do.”

“From the beginning, I’ve said — and not everyone’s agreed with me — nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. It’s their territory. I’m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do,” Biden said in Rehoboth, Delaware.
Biden did add that it “appears” at some point there will need to be a “settlement” between the two countries, adding “what that entails, I don’t know.”

Biden said that in the meantime, the United States will continue to put Ukrainians in a position where they can defend themselves.”-via CNN

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“On the 100th day of war, Russian forces appear to have made little headway in the last 24 hours as they try to break Ukrainian resistance along the border of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. In the south, a Ukrainian counteroffensive is making progress, according to Ukrainian officials.

In Luhansk, shelling of defensive positions around Severodonetsk continues, according to the Ukrainian military’s Friday update. The military reported Russian air strikes in the area as well. But the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that "the enemy tried to carry out assault operations, suffered losses, and retreated to previous positions.”

The military reported damage to properties in Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and Hirske, adding that one woman died.

Oleksandr Motuzianyk, the Ukrainian defense ministry’s spokesman, said the Russians persisted in efforts to surround Ukrainian troops near Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. But Ukrainian units had thwarted Russian efforts to seize the nearby towns of Metiolkine and Bilohorivka, he said. Russian forces continued assault operations in residential areas of Severodonetsk but suffered casualties.

The military said Ukrainian units inflicted heavy losses — “at least 50% of the personnel, weapons and equipment” — on the 150th Motorized Rifle Division. There is no way to independently verify that claim.

In Donetsk, fighting continued along much of the front line, with 14 towns and villages coming under fire, the general staff said. Russian forces are trying to degrade Ukrainian defenses around Bakhmut and Sloviansk. Motuzianyk later said that Russian attempts to take two villages about 20 kilometers (or about 12 miles) northwest of Sloviansk had failed.

Altogether, the Ukrainian military reported that at least seven civilians were killed and eight were injured in the past 24 hours in Luhansk and Donetsk, but as usual gave no casualty figures for the military. It said that over the past 24 hours,1,472 people had been evacuated from areas of hostilities.

In the southern region of Kherson, the Ukrainians say their offensive continues, and attempts by Russian forces to recover lost ground had failed. The Kherson regional military administration said fighting continued in the Beryslav district.

“We had victories from the Kryvyi Rih direction for three days in a row, villages were liberated. The occupier tried to counterattack today, but got a very strong rebuff, and our Armed Forces pushed the occupier back even further,” said Serhii Khlan, an adviser to the head of the Kherson regional council.
Khlan also claimed that resistance inside Kherson was growing.

“Our people continue to resist in the occupied territories. Every day we see flags appear in the city of Kherson, slogans appear against the occupiers, as well as leaflets,” he said.

Ukrainian forces appear to have advanced several kilometers inside Kherson. The Operational Command South said Russia had shipped in nearly 30 infantry fighting vehicles to reinforce their units and were shelling villages far behind the front lines. It also said that Russian forces had resumed shelling of settlements south of Kryvih Rih and of the city of Mykolaiv, where two people had been killed.

In the northeast, Russian shelling around Kharkiv continued, killing one person, according to the regional military administration. About six settlements came under fire from artillery and rocket systems.

There was also renewed cross-border shelling of villages in the Sumy region.”-via CNN

map from CNN

Long live the people in Donbas!

Power to them and their struggle to achieve the freedom of secession as well as their right to secure and determine their own present and future!

Peace be upon them!