“They are gathering troops for an offensive, and the shelling has increased in recent days,” Luhansk Governor Serhiy Hajday said in a televised address on Saturday. 30% of residents of Luhansk’s cities and towns are still staying, although evacuation has already been requested. According to Russian information, 27,000 people left the contested regions for Russia on Saturday – the figures cannot be independently verified.
After the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from areas near the capital Kiev, the region in eastern Ukraine appears to have become the focus of Russian attacks. “It will be a tough battle,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj said on Saturday at a news conference with Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP). “We believe in this fight and in our victory. We are ready to fight simultaneously and look for diplomatic ways to end this war”.
Attack in the east of the country
Air raid alarms sounded in several cities in eastern Ukraine. Russian troops are focused on taking the cities of Rubishne, Nizhne, Popasna and Novobakhmutivka and gaining control of the city of Mariupol, UNIAN news agency reported.
AP/Andriy Andriyenko On Friday, a train station in the east of the country was hit by a short-range Tochka-U missile.
Apparently, a nitric acid store near Rubischne was damaged by the bombing. Hajdaj asked that windows and doors be kept closed. He spoke of the Russian bombing. Pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk, on the other hand, blamed Ukrainian forces. Information about combats and attacks from both sides cannot be independently verified.
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War for Austria “completely unacceptable”
Ukraine demands weapons
At least 52 people were killed in the attack on the Kramatorsk train station on Friday, according to Ukrainian sources. As a result, it was mostly women, children and the elderly who were fleeing the expected Russian offensive in the east.
Zelenskyy condemned the attack as another war crime. “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.”
According to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, the station was hit by a Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile. They contained cluster munitions. This contains many smaller bombs and therefore has 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.
AP Civilian population is fleeing eastern Ukraine – including to Russia
Nehammer, Johnson and von der Leyen in Kiev
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday that arms deliveries are currently more important than a gas embargo against Russia. “Sanctions are important, but sanctions will not solve the problem of the battle in Donbas.” Of course: “The war will be decided in the battle for the Donbas.” During an unannounced visit to Kiev, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised more arms deliveries.
Chancellor Nehammer in Ukraine
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) met with President Selenskyj on Saturday morning as part of a solidarity visit to Ukraine and then drove to the suburb of Bucha, where massacres of the civilian population are said to have taken place. War is unacceptable, Nehammer assured help to Ukraine.
With Johnson, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Borrell and Chancellor Nehammer, four leading Western politicians traveled to Kiev within days. Von der Leyen met with Selenskyj in Kiev on Friday and got a feel for the situation in Bucha, where investigations into war crimes by the Russian army are ongoing. A day later, Nehammer and Johnson were also in Kiev to speak with the Ukrainian president.
In a joint press conference with Zelenskyy, Nehammer said the war unleashed by Russia was “completely unacceptable” for Austria: it happens.”