Ursula von der Leyen

• Lysychansk is the last major city in the eastern Donbas region still in Kiev’s control.
• Belarusian President Lukashenko says his army intercepted missiles fired at his country by Kyiv’s forces.
• Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Zelensky has hailed a new chapter in Kyiv’s relationship with the European Union.

 

Fighting raged for the strategic Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, On Saturday.  as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared that his army had intercepted missiles fired on his territory by Kyiv’s forces.

Ukraine denied claims by Moscow-backed separatists that they had encircled Lysychansk, the last major city in the eastern Donbas region still in Kiev’s control.

Lysychansk is located across the river from neighbouring Severodonetsk, which Russian forces seized last week.

The city’s capture would allow Russian forces to push deeper into the Donbas, which has become the focus of their offensive since failing to capture Kyiv.

“Fighting rages around Lysychansk… The city has not been encircled and is under control of the Ukrainian army,” Ruslan Muzytchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard, said on Ukrainian television.

Earlier in the day, Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the separatist forces, told the TASS news agency: “Lysychansk is completely encircled.”

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Lukashenko on Saturday accused Ukraine of “provoking” neighbouring Belarus, saying his army intercepted missiles fired at his country by Ukrainian forces “around three days ago”.

The claim came one week after Ukraine said missiles struck a border region from Belarus, a long-term Russian ally that supported the February 24 invasion.

But Lukashenko denied any involvement, which would represent an escalation of the conflict.

“As I said more than a year ago, we do not intend to fight in Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Belta on Saturday.

Missiles continue to rain down across Ukraine, killing dozens.

Rockets struck residential properties in Sloviansk in the heart of the Donbas, killing a woman in her garden and wounding her husband, a neighbour told AFP Saturday, describing debris showered across the neighbourhood.

The witness said the strike on Friday was thought to use cluster munitions which spread over a large area before exploding, striking buildings and people who were outdoors.

Strikes on a southern resort town earlier Friday left 21 dead and dozens wounded after missiles slammed into flats and a recreation centre in Sergiyvka, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Black Sea port Odessa.

Victims of the Sergiyvka attacks included a 12-year-old boy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation late Friday.

“I emphasise: this is an act of deliberate, purposeful Russian terror,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s chief diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said Saturday he had discussed a seventh round of European sanctions against Russia with his EU opposite number Josep Borrell.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukraine was “suffering heavy losses on all fronts”, listing what he said were military targets across the country hit with artillery and missiles.

Earlier on Friday, Zelensky hailed a new chapter in its relationship with the European Union, after Brussels recently granted Ukraine candidate status in Kyiv’s push to join the 27-member bloc, even if membership is likely years away.

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said membership was “within reach” but urged them to work on anti-corruption reforms.

Norway, which is not an EU member, on Friday announced $1 billion worth of aid for Kyiv including for reconstruction and weapons.

And the Pentagon said it was sending a new armament package worth $820 million, including two air defence systems and more ammunition for precision rocket launchers.

In a decision that further cooled relations between Kyiv and Moscow, the UN’s cultural agency inscribed Ukraine’s tradition of cooking borshch soup on its list of endangered cultural heritage.

Ukraine considers the nourishing soup, usually made with beetroot, as a national dish although it is also widely consumed in Russia, other ex-Soviet countries and Poland.

According to UNESCO, the decision was approved following a hurried process prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We “will win both the borshch war and this war,” Ukraine’s Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Telegram.

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