Chris Lange, FISM News
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At least seven Ukrainian civilians were killed and 25 were wounded by Russian shelling within a 24-hour period, according to Ukrainian officials, as reported by The Associated Press.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said Moscow’s forces targeted cities and villages in the southeast, with a majority of civilian casualties occurring in the Donetsk province. Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram post that two people were killed in the city of Avdiivka in the center of the province. Officials in Sloviansk, Krasnohorivka, and Kurakhove each reported one civilian death.
“Every crime will be punished,” Kyrylenko wrote. The governor urged the 350,000 residents remaining in the province to flee late Tuesday.
Pro-Russia separatists in the Donbas also reported that attacks by Ukrainian forces killed four civilians.
Moscow has stepped up its bloody offensive in the mostly Russian-speaking Donetsk province in recent days. President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared the complete seizure of the Donbas’ other province, Luhansk, after Ukrainian troops withdrew from the last remaining city under Ukrainian control. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai on Wednesday, however, denied that the Russians had fully captured the province.
“The Russians have paid a high price, but the Luhansk region is not fully captured by the Russian army,” Haidai said, adding, “Some settlements have been overrun by each side several times already.”
Haidai accused the Russians of employing scorched earth tactics, claiming that Kremlin forces are “burning down and destroying everything on their way.”
Heavy fighting continued in villages around Lysychansk, Hadai said. Lysychansk was captured by Russian troops on Sunday following the withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers.
Russian-backed separatists have controlled a large portion of the Donbas for the past eight years. Ahead of Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Putin declared the independence of the two self-proclaimed separatist republics. After failing to capture Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv following nearly two months of fighting, Moscow launched a new offensive in Ukraine’s industrial heartland in an effort to seize cities and villages that still remain under Ukraine’s authority.
Russia claims airstrikes killed 100 Ukrainian soldiers, destroyed US-supplied rocket systems
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian forces targeted Kharkiv with missile strikes overnight. The city’s regional governor said three civilians, including a toddler, were injured in the attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air force killed up to 100 Ukrainian troops and destroyed four armored vehicles in Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claims that high-precision missile strikes destroyed two U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems.
Canada ratifies Sweden, Finland NATO accession
Canada became the first country to formally ratify Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO Wednesday, Reuters reported. The move comes just a day after all 30 member nations agreed to the expansion that would place the two countries under the protection of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s mutual defense clause.
The two Nordic countries managed to clear a significant hurdle last week, overcoming Turkey’s veto following closed-door negotiations ahead of NATO’s Madrid summit last week. Still, they cannot become official alliance members until legislative bodies in all 29 remaining countries formally agree to ratify the decision.
Under NATO’s defense clause, an attack against one member is considered to be an attack against all. Finland and Sweden’s membership bids follow decades of non-alignment and were made in direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ironically, Moscow declared the potential threat of a NATO expansion along its borders as one of the reasons for instigating the conflict. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia.