Russia is likely to occupy the entire Luhansk region of Ukraine in a few weeks, a senior US defense official has said, as Ukraine has suffered heavy losses and its ammunition supplies are declining. Such a move would leave Russia unable to achieve its war goals of occupying all of Luhansk and Donetsk, which together form the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. But it would still equate to victory for Russian forces and create a new de facto front line that could last for some time. The Ukrainian cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in Luhansk are under increasing pressure and could fall into the hands of Russian forces within a week, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Heavy street fighting continued on Saturday in Severodonetsk, a strategic town near the Donets River. Ukrainian forces control a third of the city, Mayor Alexander Stryuk told the BBC’s Ukrainian service. Russian troops have been unable to advance south of the city since Friday, according to the latest information from the British Ministry of Defense, which was released on Saturday. However, they are combining artillery force with air strikes to crush Ukraine’s defense, the ministry said. Ukraine has demanded faster deliveries of unarmed Western weapons to its army. Russia’s progress remains steady overall and comes at a high cost to its own forces in terms of deaths and injuries, the US defense official said. Ukrainian forces are fighting a very effective “mobile area defense”, in which Russia is pushing forward with its attack as Ukrainian forces retreat, only to then Ukrainian forces recover and take back land. “The Ukrainians are doing a very good job here,” he said. Ukrainian troops counterattacked in the Kherson region on Saturday, regaining full control of the village of Tavriis’ke, the Kherson city council said in a Facebook post. The claim could not be independently verified. About 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion, Oleksiy Arestovych, a military adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Saturday. At least 200 to 300 Ukrainian soldiers are killed every day, he said, although he claimed that Russia had suffered even more casualties since February. The Washington Post could not immediately verify the information. Zelensky said on Saturday that it was “too late” to persuade Russia to end its invasion, urging people to avoid compromise with Moscow and take stronger action against Russia. Zelensky’s comments, which were videotaped to the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security summit in Singapore, came a week after French President Emmanuel Macron sparked outrage in Ukraine and its Eastern European allies when he said it was important to do not “humiliate” Russia. to maintain the choice of a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Paris appeared to be in control of the situation on Friday, with a presidential official telling reporters that France wanted a victory for Ukraine and was not prepared to make concessions to Russia, Reuters reported. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Kyiv on Saturday on an unannounced visit. He was expected to discuss with Zelensky Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union. Ukraine hopes to gain “candidate status”, an early step on the long road to EU membership. The commission is expected to make a recommendation on Ukraine’s status next week. European Parliament President Roberta Metzola said on Friday that the bloc’s legislature supports Ukraine’s candidacy. But there have been rifts between the countries of Central Europe and the Baltic states, which support swift action on Ukraine’s candidacy, and Western European countries, which are more reluctant to speed up the process for a country with a history of corruption. Some EU diplomats have said that Ukraine’s accession could be decades away. Rare tensions between the United States and Ukraine appeared to have risen earlier in the weekend after President Biden said Zelensky “did not want to hear” when US intelligence officials warned of a Russian attack ahead of the February 24 invasion. . Biden spoke about the United States’ commitment to Ukraine at a Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles on Friday night, the Associated Press reported. “Nothing like that has happened since World War II,” he said. Ukrainian officials have rejected Biden’s statement that his government’s warnings have fallen on deaf ears in Kyiv. Zelensky’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told the Ukrainian news website LIGA.net that Ukraine knew that Russia was planning to invade, but that uncertainty remained about the size of any attack. The White House declined to comment. Concerns about the consequences of the conflict on global food security have continued to rise, with Germany’s agriculture minister accusing Russia of using hunger as a weapon. Cem Ozdemir denounced the “extremely disgusting kind of war” on a German television news program. Moscow continues to block Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, blocking the export of millions of tonnes of grain to countries around the world. Meanwhile, in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, the first 23 Russian passports were presented to Ukrainian citizens at a ceremony on Saturday, Russian state media reported. Authorities set up by the Kremlin have offered rapid Russian passports to residents of the Kherson region and Russian-controlled areas of the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian and Western officials fear Moscow intends to annex the occupied territories. For the past two years, Russia has distributed passports to Ukrainians living in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine in an apparent attempt to create the conditions to justify a new invasion. Russia has taken a number of other measures to exercise administrative and cultural control over the occupied Ukrainian territories. Russian officials are reportedly planning to train teachers in eastern Ukraine using Russian curricula, according to the pro-Moscow Ukrainian news website Strana. Occupying authorities in Mariupol, the southern port city occupied by Russian forces last month, also began introducing Russian textbooks into schools, Petro Andriuschenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian-backed mayor of Mariupol, wrote in the Telegram on Friday. However, the occupying authorities are still struggling to provide basic services, including medical care, to residents, the Washington-based Institute for War Studies said Friday. David L. Stern in Mukachevo, Ukraine, Timothy Bella in Washington, DC, Victoria Bisset and Ellen Francis in London, and Katerina Ang and Amy Cheng in Seoul contributed to this exhibition.
