Allegedly more than 800,000 new Russians in Donbass in recent years Biden criticizes Selenskyj The news about the war in Ukraine in the star ticker.
In Ukraine, the war has already lasted for the 108th day. According to government figures, around 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a good three and a half months of the Russian war of aggression. An advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj made the number public on Saturday night. In eastern Ukraine, meanwhile, the fighting is continuing without major changes in the course of the front.
9.47 a.m .: Allegedly more than 800,000 new Russians in the Donbass in recent years
According to the Russian news agency Tass, more than 800,000 people have received Russian citizenship in the past three years in the separatist areas of eastern Ukraine. Just under one percent of the applications from residents of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk were rejected, Tass reported on Saturday, citing the Ministry of the Interior in Moscow. In April 2019, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin issued a decree that made it easier for Ukrainians in Donbass to become Russian citizens.
According to critics, the many new Russians serve as a tool for the Kremlin to expand its influence in eastern Ukraine. Russian passports are also to be distributed in areas that Russian troops have occupied since the war began at the end of February this year. In this way, the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions, for example, are to be tied more closely to Moscow. The Russian ruble is also to be introduced there as a means of payment.
9.40 a.m.: Fierce fighting for the Ukrainian city of Sieverodonetsk
According to the British government, Ukrainians and Russians are fighting violently in the streets around the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievjerodonetsk. Both sides are likely to suffer a high number of casualties, the British Ministry of Defense wrote on Saturday in its regular intelligence update on the situation in the Ukraine war.
The strategically important industrial city of Sieverodonetsk is the last major city in the Luhansk region that is not yet fully under Russian and pro-Russian control. They have been fighting for weeks.
The British also reported that the Russian air force had been using dozens of old, imprecise anti-ship missiles against land targets since April due to a lack of modern weapons. The Kh-22 missiles date back to the 1960s and were actually designed to destroy aircraft carriers with a nuclear warhead.
If they are instead used in a ground attack with a conventional warhead, they are very inaccurate and could cause significant collateral damage and civilian casualties, the update said. Russia is probably using these inefficient weapon systems because the armed forces lack more modern and accurate weapons.
8.50 a.m .: Biden criticizes Selenskyj
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ignored warnings of a Russian invasion shortly before the start of the war, according to US President Joe Biden. There was “no doubt” that Russia would “cross the border,” Biden said at an event in Los Angeles on Friday. “Zelenskyj didn’t want to hear that, and neither did many others.”
“I know a lot of people thought I was exaggerating,” he said, referring to US warnings of a possible Russian attack. However, the US government had data to support its assessment.
2.45 a.m .: Zelenskyj: Russia wants to destroy “every city” in Donbass in eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of wanting to destroy “every city” in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. “Russia wants to devastate every city in Donbass, every single one, without exaggeration. Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol,” said Zelenskyy in his video address on Friday evening, referring to two war-torn cities in southern Donbass. However, the Ukrainian military is doing everything “to stop the attacks of the occupiers”.
Fierce fighting continued on Friday, particularly in eastern Donbass, particularly in the embattled city of Sievarodonetsk in the Luhansk region. According to Governor Serhiy Hajday, the Russians destroyed an important sports hall in the city on Friday: “One of the landmarks of Sieverodonetsk was destroyed. The Ice Palace burned down,” he explained.
