War in Ukraine, live: Volodymyr Zelenskyy recognizes a “very difficult situation” in Donbass

Hosted live by Sandra Favier, Clémence Apetogbor, Pierre Bouvier and Eléa Pommiers

Cover photo: Anna Poladyuk, 66, takes shelter at the entrance of a basement in Sievierodonetsk, May 18, 2022, as mortar fire hits the area. YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP

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• The Russian army is advancing into the Donbass, where strikes continue. The territorial defense staff of the self-proclaimed pro-Russian separatist “republic” of Donetsk claimed to have taken “complete control” of the city of Lyman on Friday (May 27) with the “assistance” of Russian forces. Neither the Ukrainian nor Russian armies responded to this announcement, but the capture of this city, a major railway junction, would open the way for the Russians to the regional centers of Sloviansk and then Kramatorsk, while helping to encircle the formed agglomeration of the cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysytchansk , further east.
• After several weeks of shelling Sievierodonetsk, the encirclement of the city appears to be nearing completion. A police official in the pro-Russian separatist republic of Luhansk said on Friday the city was surrounded and Ukrainian troops had lost any chance of getting out. However, the head of Ukraine’s city administration, Oleksandr Striouk, denied full encirclement but acknowledged a “very difficult” situation. “Nearly two-thirds of the perimeter of the city is occupied by the enemy, but it is not surrounded,” he said. Between 12,000 and 13,000 residents are said to still live in the city.
• Ukrainian cities are being bombed outside of the Donbass. Russian missiles were aimed at a military installation in the city of Dnipro in central-eastern Ukraine on the Dnieper River on Friday, according to local authorities. “We regret a dozen dead and between 30 and 35 wounded,” said Guennadi Korban, who is in charge of the city’s defense, indicating that the victims were all soldiers.
• As Russian forces advance and cities like Kharkiv come under fire, Ukraine needs new weapons, says Boris Johnson. The British Prime Minister advocated that the West supply MLRS (M-270 MLRS, for Multiple Launch Rocket System) to Ukraine. These weapons would allow Ukraine to “defend against Russian artillery,” especially as Moscow’s forces in the Donbass region “continue to nibble” and “make slow but (…) noticeable progress.” The Ukrainian authorities constantly ask about this type of weapon.
• The cost of damage to Ukrainian infrastructure according to Alexander Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, would be in the order of “90 to 100 billion dollars”. Federal President Ignazio Cassis announced at the Davos Forum that his country would hold a “conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine” on July 4th and 5th, which would deal in particular with the question of the contributions announced and to be made by the World Bank, the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) and the European Union (EU).
• The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, previously affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, has announced its break with Russia. “We disagree with Moscow Patriarch Kirill (…) on the war in Ukraine,” said this Orthodox Church in a press release after a council devoted to “aggression” against Ukraine and “full independence and Autonomy of Ukraine” declared the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”.
• Ukrainian war wounded treated in France. Kyiv thanked France for accepting “Ukrainian war wounded in its hospitals, especially army hospitals,” according to a press release published by the French Armed Forces Ministry on Wednesday evening. The first two Ukrainian soldiers were received at the Percy military hospital in the Paris region, the office of the French minister told Agence France-Presse.

You can find our live from yesterday here.

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