Updates from key battlefields: Kyiv’s forces say they’re slowing Moscow’s eastern advance
New U.S. ambassador to Ukraine visits Borodyanka
Fire engulfs towering wooden monastery in eastern Ukraine
Street fighting is ongoing in Severodonetsk, city official says
What to know about Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian city Russia wants to capture
More than 200 found dead in Kyiv region still unidentified, officials say
Pilots survey damage after civil airfield is hit by missile strike
French Open winner Iga Swiatek tells Ukraine to ‘stay strong’
Russia facing strong local resistance in Kherson, Ukrainian army says
Russian forces ‘destroying bridges’ in Severodonetsk, governor says
Ukraine in contact with captured Azovstal fighters, minister says
NATO head meets with Finnish prime minister
Ukraine awaits new weapons before resuming peace talks, official says
Russian airstrikes persist in Donbas despite limited effect, Britain says
Ukraine investigates deportation of children as possible genocide
Updates from key battlefields: Kyiv’s forces say they’re slowing Moscow’s eastern advance
New U.S. ambassador to Ukraine visits Borodyanka
Fire engulfs towering wooden monastery in eastern Ukraine
Street fighting is ongoing in Severodonetsk, city official says
What to know about Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian city Russia wants to capture
More than 200 found dead in Kyiv region still unidentified, officials say
Pilots survey damage after civil airfield is hit by missile strike
French Open winner Iga Swiatek tells Ukraine to ‘stay strong’
Russia facing strong local resistance in Kherson, Ukrainian army says
Russian forces ‘destroying bridges’ in Severodonetsk, governor says
Ukraine in contact with captured Azovstal fighters, minister says
NATO head meets with Finnish prime minister
Ukraine awaits new weapons before resuming peace talks, official says
Russian airstrikes persist in Donbas despite limited effect, Britain says
Ukraine investigates deportation of children as possible genocide
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Russian troops were destroying bridges Saturday to prevent Ukraine from moving in reinforcements to Severodonetsk, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said, as the battle for the strategic city dragged on. Nonetheless, he said Ukrainian forces were regaining land and now control about half of the city.
Kyiv’s forces appear to be slowing Moscow’s efforts to surround their troops in the eastern Luhansk region, including in Severodonetsk, through “prudent and effective local counterattacks” in the city and their defense of the western Siversky Donets riverbank, Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said.
Severodonetsk: Ukrainian forces are regaining land and now control about half of this city, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai. Russian forces had captured about 70 percent this week. Fighting has escalated in the city’s streets over the past three days under a constant barrage of artillery attacks, said the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Stryuk.
The new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, on Saturday visited Borodyanka, a community northwest of Kyiv hit hard by Russian forces at the start of the war.
Photos of the trip show Brink walking in front of a destroyed building, devastation that she said “strengthens my resolve to do everything we can to hold the perpetrators of these awful crimes to account,” she wrote on Twitter.
A towering wooden monastery that is part of a revered centuries-old Ukrainian Orthodox Church site caught fire and sustained heavy damage, officials said Saturday.
Ukrainian leaders said in a statement on Twitter that Russia bombed the All Saints Monastery, which is affiliated with Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Videos posted on social media showed flames engulfing the ornate building, which drew tourists and pilgrims before the war. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church said it had no information on whether Saturday’s attack caused deaths or injuries.
Fighting over the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk has escalated in its streets over the past three days, a city leader said.
Under a constant barrage of artillery attacks, Severodonetsk remains under Ukrainian control but is split, Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the city’s military administration, said in a Ukrainian news interview Saturday. About half of the residential areas have been taken over by the invaders, Stryuk said. But he offered an optimistic assessment.
The eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk has emerged as a focal point of Russia’s war in Ukraine in recent weeks. Fierce fighting continues to rage there as Ukrainian troops seek to prevent Russia from seizing the entire city.
Russian forces have pounded Severodonetsk with artillery, wreaking immense damage as part of a scorched-earth assault on the east that is inflicting massive casualties on Ukrainian forces. Russian troops entered the middle of the city Monday and are battling Ukrainian soldiers on the streets.
This is an excerpt from a full story.
Ukrainian investigators have exhumed more than 1,300 bodies of civilians in the Kyiv region as part of the nation’s ongoing investigation into potential war crimes.
In an update Saturday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said authorities are still finding the bodies of Ukrainians who were shot and tortured in the capital region. Recovered remains are sent to morgues, where a forensic examination is then conducted.
Pilots were surveying the damage at a private airfield Saturday after a missile strike that destroyed one plane and damaged 10 others.
Kharkiv Aeroclub manager Serhii Filatov told Reuters that the attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region wrecked several hangars. Video of the site shows a large indentation in the ground where the missile hit, and twisted metal and tears in one hangar’s roof.
Iga Swiatek, who turned 21 last Tuesday, won the French Open women’s tennis championship Saturday, claiming her second Grand Slam title. She also extended her winning streak to 35 matches and claimed her sixth straight tournament title.
After the match, Swiatek saved her final on-court remarks for Ukraine in accepting the 2022 French Open trophy.
Russian occupying forces in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson are facing strong local resistance, Ukraine's military said in an update Saturday.
“The invaders are afraid of the resistance of the local population” in Kherson, the armed forces general staff said in a statement on Facebook.
Russian forces were blowing up bridges as a fierce battle for Severodonetsk continued Saturday, according to Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai.
“The Russian army, as we understand, is throwing all its efforts, all its reserves in that direction,” Haidai said Saturday in a live TV broadcast, according to Reuters. With the bridges across the Siversky Donets river destroyed, Ukraine will find it harder to bring reinforcements and humanitarian aid to the city from areas it holds to the southwest.
Ukrainian intelligence officials have made contact with fighters captured by Russia after the fall of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and are working to secure their release, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told local media.
“It is through [the intelligence services] that we are learning about the conditions of the detention, nutrition and the possibility of their release,” Monastyrsky said on national television, Reuters reported.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin to discuss Finland’s application to join the military alliance and “the need to address” Turkey’s concerns over Helsinki’s potential membership, he said Friday.
Finland, along with neighbor Sweden, reversed decades of military nonalignment due to security concerns triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Turkey, a NATO member, has objected to the two countries’ applications, partly because Sweden has granted asylum to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been waging a separatist rebellion in parts of Turkey.
The head of Ukraine’s negotiating team says Kyiv is awaiting the delivery of new weapons from Western countries before it engages in fresh peace talks with Moscow.
In remarks on national television, reported by Reuters, David Arakhamia said: “Our armed forces are ready to use [the new weapons] … and then I think we can initiate a new round of talks from a strengthened position.”
Airstrikes involving the use of guided and unguided missiles remain constant in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update early Saturday, as Russia looks to disrupt Ukrainian efforts to supply and reinforce troops.
However, Moscow’s failure to destroy Ukrainian air defense systems in the early days of the invasion means it has not been able to provide tactical air support to its troops on the ground.
The latest: No one knows how long the war in Ukraine will last, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, though he cautioned that the world should be prepared for a war that lasts for years. Stoltenberg’s forecast, in an interview published Saturday in Germany’s Bild newspaper, comes as the United States and its allies are preparing for a drawn-out conflict.
The fight: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but underequipped Ukrainian forces. The United States and its allies are racing to deliver the enormous quantities of weaponry the Ukrainians urgently need if they are to hold the Russians at bay.
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
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