- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reprimands military leadership on new requirements for conscripts
- Washington does not expect a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov at G20
The article was last updated at 05:55 UTC/GMT
Sloviansk to be ‘next key contest’ in Donbas: UK
The UK’s Ministry of Defense said in its Wednesday intelligence update that “there is a realistic possibility that the battle for Sloviansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas.”
It said that Russian forces were likely continuing to consolidate their control over the Luhansk oblast and the recently overrun Lysychansk, but that forces from Russia’s eastern, western, central and southern forces all now appeared to be converging on the town of Sloviansk in the neighboring Donetsk oblast. The Eastern and Western Groups of Forces “are likely now around 16 km (roughly 10 miles) from the town,” it said.
The mayor of Sloviansk on Tuesday told citizens to take shelter, saying the city faced “massive shelling.” Meanwhile, Ukraine’s governor for the contested Donetsk region said his “main advice” to noncombatant civilians was to evacuate.
“The enemy is shelling chaotically, the attacks are aimed at destroying the local population,” Pavlo Kyrylenko said. “So, once again, the main advice is to evacuate.”
Germany: Left Party lawmaker says sanctions not working
A Left Party lawmaker in Germany has called for an end to Russian sanctions against the gas supply and to start talks on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
“The government must ensure that the energy prices are kept in check by increasing supply, including from Russia, remain limited,” the party’s economic expert, Klaus Ernst, is quoted as saying in Wednesday’s edition of the newspaper Rheinische Post.
“Our citizens and our economy are the suffering the consequences of a completely misguided sanctions policy,” he said, while disrupting the gas supply could also “irreparably damage the industrial backbone” of Germany.
“The German government must do everything it can now to secure energy supplies.”
“If necessary, also about putting Nord Stream 2 into operation for a limited period of time, if the gas supply cannot be can be guaranteed in any other way.”
Germany’s Left Party is effectively the successor to the former East German communist SED and tends to maintain better ties to Russia than any other major political groupings in the country.
The party has been struggling in state elections this year following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. It failed to secure parliamentary representation in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia entirely in May, securing just 2.1% of the vote, having claimed 4.9% last time around in 2017.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy reprimands military leadership for conscript requirement
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video message late Tuesday, criticizing military leadership over reports of new rules on where potential Ukrainian conscripts are allowed to travel.
Army Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi and Ukraine’s general staff had said that Ukrainians eligible for military service needed permission if they wanted to leave their registered place of residence.
Following outrage on social media, authorities specified that such permits were indeed necessary for leaving a district.
In Ukraine, districts are a mid-sized administrative division that are below that of a province and above that of a municipality.
Zelenskyy said that this decision had caused “incomprehension” and “outrage” in Ukrainian society, and promised that he would “figure it out” in an upcoming meeting with the country’s military leadership.
“I promise the people to clarify the matter and further request the general staff not to take such decisions without me,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 have not been allowed to leave the country since the imposition of martial law as they are classed as being eligible for military service.
Starting in October, women in certain occupational groups will also be subject to military service.
US does not expect Blinken-Lavrov meeting at G20
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that he does not expect US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
“I’m not in a position to walk through the choreography, but I certainly would not expect any meeting between Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov,” he said.
Price said that he expected G20 members to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Recap of Tuesday’s events
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, urged the evacuation of 350,000 residents. Kyrylenko said two were killed and seven more were injured during heavy shelling on the city of Sloviansk.
Vadim Lyakh, the mayor of Sloviansk, urged residents of his city to take shelter as his city faced “massive shelling.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said that hundreds of civilians have been detained in parts of Ukraine held by Russian forces.
Polish citizens were crowdfunding for the purchase of drones for Ukraine following a similar successful initiative in neighboring Lithuania.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced a donation of $17 million (€16.5 million) to address the problem of grain storage in Ukraine and to increase exports.
Representatives of over 40 countries along with multilateral organizations such as the European Investment Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) signed onto the Lugano Declaration outlining a roadmap for Ukraine’s recovery.
Click here for all the updates from Tuesday
jsi, sdi/wmr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-sloviansk-likely-to-be-next-key-contest-in-donbas-battle-live-updates/a-62375351?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf