People in bomb shelters must not leave them. At the same time, he released a video showing a thick reddish cloud that is said to come from nitric acid. Hajdaj spoke of Russian bombings. Pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk, on the other hand, blamed Ukrainian forces for the chemical accident. The reports were not independently verifiable. Among other things, nitric acid can release harmful fumes.
In nearby Lyssychansk, the head of the city’s military administration urged the remaining citizens to flee. “Unfortunately, the bombing does not stop,” Olexander Sajika said in a video message. It’s dangerous everywhere. However, the Luhansk region will not be abandoned. In a televised address on Saturday, Hajdaj again urged the civilian population to leave the region. “They are gathering troops for an offensive and the shelling has increased in recent days,” said the governor of Luhansk. About 30% of the residents of Luhansk’s cities and towns are still staying, although evacuation has already been requested.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in the Donetsk region bordering Luhansk as another war crime. In a video message, he called for a global response. According to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, the station was hit by a Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile. They contained cluster munitions. Cluster munitions, also known as cluster munitions, are not used in a targeted manner.
Russian energy imports would have to be stopped and all Russian banks cut off from the global financial system. “Any delay in the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, any refusal can only mean that the politicians in question want to help the Russian leadership more than we do.”
Air raid alarms sounded in several cities in eastern Ukraine. The region, along with the south, became the focus of Russian military action following the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from areas near the capital Kiev. At least 52 people were killed in the attack on the Kramatorsk train station on Friday, according to Ukrainian sources. Thus, it was mainly women, children and the elderly who were fleeing the expected Russian offensive in the east.
It contains many smaller bombs and therefore deploys a very large radius of action. It is particularly dangerous because no distinction is made between civilian and military targets. Cluster munitions are banned by a 2008 convention. Russia has not signed this convention and has denied that such weapons are used in Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby previously said Russia’s official denials after the train station attack were unconvincing. “Our assessment is that it was a Russian strike and they used a short-range ballistic missile to carry it out,” he said.
Attacks by Russian units in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, continue, according to Ukrainian sources. Russian troops are focused on taking the cities of Rubishne, Nizhne, Popasna and Novobachmutivka and gaining full control of the city of Mariupol, Unian reported, citing the military situation report of the Ukrainian General Staff on Saturday morning.
The Russian army confirmed further attacks in the Ukrainian regions of Dnipro and Poltava. Not far from the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, an arms depot was hit by rockets on Saturday night, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. In Myrhorod, in Poltava, in central Ukraine, an attack was directed against an airfield. The Ukrainian side said two people were injured.
The Russian government, which speaks of a special military operation in Ukraine to demilitarize and denazize it, has repeatedly denied attacks on civilians. Ukraine and Western countries describe the Russian invasion, which began on February 24, as a war of unprovoked aggression. More than four million people fled abroad. Thousands were killed or wounded. Cities were reduced to rubble and a quarter of the population was left homeless.