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Russian forces already control at least 70% of Severodonetsk eastern part of Ukraine, Luhansk Governor Sergei Gaidai, who has described the situation as "ultra-complicated", confirmed to the British network Sky News on Tuesday.
This morning the Russians occupied half of the town, the largest in Ukrainian hands in this province, in the Donbas region. The Russian offensive continues to intensify in eastern Ukraine: at least three people have been killed and six others injured in a new missile attack in Sloviansk.
Ukraine already counts more than 600 Russian war crimes suspects and has begun prosecuting 80 of them, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova reported Tuesday.
This was stated by the country's chief prosecutor Iryna Venediktova. In The Hague, where she made a presentation, the official specified that some 600 suspects have been identified and expressed that 80 prosecutions have been initiated.
Of the 15,000 alleged war crimes, Venediktova said that several of them have been identified in the eastern region of Donbas, the scene of fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops for years, where there is also an important pro-Russian sector.
As reported, the alleged war crimes in the region include torture, the murder of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, in addition to the possible forced transfer of people, including cases of adults and children, to different parts of Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considered that the country loses between 60 and 100 soldiers daily due to the war with Russia. In providing these numbers, the leader specifically referred to the battles in the Donbas region, which Moscow seeks to completely conquer.
“The situation in the east (of the country) is very difficult. We are losing 60 to 100 soldiers every day and something like 500 wounded in combat," he said in a Newsmax interview.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has welcomed the approval of the sixth package of sanctions of the European Union against Russia, But he has criticized what he considers an "unacceptable" delay in the bloc's agreement on the latest measures that involve a partial embargo on Russian oil.
The Russian gas company Gazprom announced on Tuesday that it will cut off gas supplies to two other companies: the Danish Orsted, Denmark's largest electricity company, and the British Shell, for a contract for 1,200 million cubic meters of gas in Germany (around 2.5% of the Russian gas exported in 2021 to the country), in both cases for refusing to pay in rubles, as the Kremlin requires companies from "hostile" countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Europe to forge its "independence" from Russian energy. The situation on the eastern front line in Donbas has become increasingly desperate, with Ukrainian cities facing almost constant shelling by Russian forces.
"We see some cars driving around with Ukrainian flags, so we think that means we are still part of Ukraine," said Yevgen Onyshchenko, a 42-year-old plumber in an apartment without electricity in Severodonetsk's twin city of Lysychansk.
"But otherwise we're in the dark."
A French journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, was killed Monday while covering civilian evacuations in the area. An overnight rocket attack killed at least three people and wounded six in the city of Slovyansk, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Telegram on Tuesday.
"I repeat once again that there are no safe places in the Donetsk region, so I call again: evacuate, save your lives," he said.
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