[There are in total] 2229 houses destroyed in Kharkiv and the region. We will restore, rebuild and bring life back to Kharkiv and all other cities and villages where evil has come
, he said on Telegram, accompanying his message with a video of his visit.
“ In this war, the occupiers are trying to achieve any result. But they must understand that we will defend our land until the end. They don’t stand a chance. We will fight and we will win. »
The president took advantage of this visit to honor the Ukrainian soldiers, who took back 5% of the territory previously occupied by Russian forces in the region [Russia still occupies 31% of the territory].
In his daily video message, he later announced the dismissal of the head of the secret service of the Kharkiv region, because he had not worked in the defense of the city since the first days of this war, but only thought that to himself
.
Bombarded almost daily since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, Kharkiv, the country’s second city, has been experiencing a respite for a few weeks, after a Ukrainian counter-offensive that succeeded in pushing back Russian troops.
A radar station in the Kharkiv region has also been targeted by an attack in the past 24 hours, according to a statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday morning.
The statement also states that the Russian army destroyed, with long-range high-precision missiles, an important arsenal of the Ukrainian armed forces
in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in addition to targeting a Ukrainian air defense system near Mykolayevka and five ammunition depots near Sievierodonetsk.
The Russian noose is tightening in the Donbass
The largest city still under Ukrainian control in the Donbas region is also the scene of ever more intense fighting.
Russia has engaged all its means to seize Sievierodonetsk or to prevent any communication between the region and Ukraine
, Sergii Gaïdaï, governor of the Lugansk region, said on Saturday evening on his Telegram account.
The bombardments were so intense that it was not possible to assess the number of victims or the damage
, he said, however, mentioning the death of two people on Saturday and the destruction of 13 buildings.
According to Governor Gaïdaï, the assault continues in the city with street fighting.
The leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said on Saturday evening on Telegram that Sievierodonetsk is under [their] total control. […] The city was liberated.
Meanwhile, police reported extensive destruction
in Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk’s twin town across the Seversky Donets River. Governor Gaïdaï described the situation as having greatly worsened
.
A Russian shell fell on an apartment building, a girl died on the spot and four people were hospitalized
, he said. The previous day had been difficult
in the city, according to Mr. Gaïdaï, who reported a destroyed cinema and 22 damaged buildings.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian army conceded that the regrouping of Russian forces was strengthening
in this sector.
Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that the situation in this region of Donbas [was] very, very difficult
, with intensive artillery and missile strikes. But he had reasoned that if the occupiers think Lyman and Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. The Donbas will be Ukrainian.
What will Europeans do with Russian oil?
After the unsuccessful offensive on Kyiv and Kharkiv at the start of the war, Russian forces concentrated in eastern Ukraine, with the stated objective of completely seizing Donbas, partially controlled since 2014 by separatists. pro-Russians backed by Moscow.
In Brussels, on the eve of an EU summit, representatives of the twenty-seven discussed on Sunday a new proposal that would temporarily exempt a key oil pipeline for Hungary from a gradual EU embargo on Russian oil, in an attempt to lift the block on their sixth sanctions package against Moscow.
These new sanctions are currently blocked by Hungary, a landlocked country without access to the sea and dependent on the oil sent from Russia by the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies it with 65% of its consumption.