Russian forces are trying to cut the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, after having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk will become the next main focus of the fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes in areas far from the heart of Eastern battles. Ukraine described its withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk as a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets River.
Russia will send missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday while welcoming Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. “In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin said.
Mayors of several European capitals have been tricked into making video calls with a deepfake from their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no indications that the video conference was not done with a real person,” his office said in a statement.
Ukrainian bombings on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, just hours after Moscow forces took the city, Tass news agency Reuters reported. Separately, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk, directing artillery fire against the Russians. The councilor, Oleksiy Arestovych, spoke in a video address.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged G7 leaders not to “give up” Ukraine, as he promised additional financial support for Ukraine as it tries to fight the Russian invasion. “Ukraine can win and will win. But they need our support to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine, “Johnson said Saturday. The UK is willing to offer another $ 525 million in loan guarantees, according to a Downing Street statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine will regain all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we will recover them all,” he said in a video address at night. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to handle emotionally.
Russian attacks killed three civilians on Saturday in Bakhmut, New York and Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. In addition, Russian missile attacks have killed at least three and injured four more in Sarny, a city in Rivne, a western region of Ukraine.
The United States has announced that it will provide 18 patrol boats in Ukraine as part of the 13th security package promised on Thursday. “The package announced Thursday includes two small 35-foot river boats; six 40-foot maritime combat vessels; and ten 34-foot Dauntless Sea Ark patrol boats,” the defense department said Thursday.