Russia-Ukraine war: Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk being ‘levelled’, says Luhansk governor, as Russian shelling intensifies – live | Ukraine

Ukraine has concentrated sufficient forces to repel Russian assaults in Sievierodonetsk however neither aspect is getting ready to withdraw, based on town’s mayor, Oleksandr Stryuk.

Avenue combating rages within the frontline jap metropolis, Stryuk mentioned, including that Ukraine had “targeted sufficient forces and sources there to beat again assaults” by Russia.

In separate feedback, defence ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk mentioned Russia was not sparing troops or tools in its push to seize Sievierodonetsk, the biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled metropolis in Luhansk area.

Russia’s international minister, Sergei Lavrov, mentioned Moscow would reply to western deliveries of long-range weapons to Ukraine by pushing again Kyiv’s forces farther from Russia’s borders.

It comes after the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, mentioned Britain will ship a handful of tracked M270 a number of launch rocket techniques to Ukraine.

Reuters has quoted Lavrov as saying at a information convention:

The longer the vary of the techniques that might be delivered, the additional we are going to transfer again the Nazis from that line from which threats to Russian-speakers and the Russian Federation could come.

Ukraine’s international minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has urged nations to not belief Vladimir Putin’s guarantees to not use commerce routes to assault the southern port metropolis of Odesa.

Putin has mentioned Ukraine may use the ports of Mykolayiv and Odesa for meals exports, and that Russia wouldn’t use the mine clearance state of affairs to launch “some assaults from the ocean”.

Kuleba tweeted:

Putin says he is not going to use commerce routes to assault Odesa. This is similar Putin who informed German Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron he wouldn’t assault Ukraine – days earlier than launching a full-scale invasion of our nation.

We can’t belief Putin, his phrases are empty.

Right here’s extra on the decision between Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson. The pair mentioned efforts to finish Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, a Downing Avenue spokesperson mentioned.

A No 10 assertion mentioned:

The leaders additionally mentioned diplomatic negotiations and efforts to finish the damaging Russian blockade of Ukraine’s grain exports.

Russia calls determination to dam Lavrov’s aircraft ‘hostile motion’

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, mentioned he spoke with Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, who confirmed a brand new package deal of UK navy support to Kyiv.

The pair are “searching for methods to keep away from the meals disaster and unblock ports”, Zelenskiy tweeted.

Hiya, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking up from Martin Belam right now. Be happy to get in contact on Twitter or through e mail.

Ukrainian partisans in occupied areas of the nation are growing assaults and sabotage efforts on Russian forces and their native collaborators, with organised underground efforts showing to unfold, Peter Beaumont and Isobel Koshiw report.

Six Russian border guards had been reportedly killed final week when their place got here beneath fireplace close to the Zernovo border checkpoint in Ukraine’s north. Two days later an explosion struck near the workplace of Yevgeny Balitsky, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian official in Melitopol.

The rise in partisan warfare, significantly within the nation’s south round Kherson, follows warnings on the outset of Russia’s battle in opposition to Ukraine that any space beneath occupation was prone to see the emergence of guerrilla warfare.

The topic is without doubt one of the murkiest of the battle in Ukraine. Each side have an curiosity in exaggerating its prevalence: the Russians to justify crackdowns in areas they occupy and the Ukrainians to demoralise Russian troops.

Additionally complicating the difficulty is assessing the extent to which assaults are being carried out by Ukrainian navy sabotage teams or homegrown resistance teams.

Partisans are normally outlined as members of an armed group shaped to battle secretly in opposition to an occupying drive, for example in Nazi-occupied Europe. The time period holds extra optimistic connotations than rebel.

The Melitopol incident, involving a automotive packed stuffed with explosives, was vital sufficient to focus renewed consideration on a phenomenon that has been occurring since virtually the start of the battle.

The UN nuclear watchdog is “creating the modalities” for a world mission of consultants it hopes to ship to the Russian-held nuclear energy plant at Zaporizhzhia in south-east Ukraine, its chief, Rafael Grossi, mentioned.

In a press release to the Worldwide Atomic Power Company’s 35-nation board of governors, Grossi mentioned:

We’re creating the modalities to dispatch such a mission; different concerns shouldn’t forestall this important worldwide mission from happening.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant is Europe’s largest and has been occupied by Russian troops since shortly after they invaded Ukraine. The ability continues to be operated by Ukrainian technicians.

• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited his troops on Ukraine’s jap frontlines on Sunday to grasp the place of Ukrainian defenders as Russia’s assault on Donbas continues. In line with a launch from his workplace, Zelenskiy visited command posts and frontline positions of Ukrainian troops within the space of Bakhmut within the Donetsk area and Lysychansk within the Luhansk area, just some kilometres south from Sievierodonetsk, the place Ukraine claims to be combating again in one of many battle’s greatest floor battles.

• Russian forces proceed to storm the jap metropolis of Sievierodonetsk and fired missiles on the close by cities of Sloviansk, Lysychansk and Orikhove, Ukraine’s navy has mentioned. Russian troops fired at Ukrainian models defending Sievierodonetsk with mortars and artillery fireplace, damaging infrastructure within the cities of Metolkino, Borivske, Ustynivka and Toshkivka.

• Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has reported right now that the state of affairs has worsened a bit of for Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk and that there’s intense avenue combating. He informed nationwide tv: “Our defenders managed to undertake a counterattack for a sure time; they liberated virtually half of town. However now the state of affairs has worsened a bit of for us once more.”

• Haidai additionally mentioned that “the variety of shellings in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk elevated tenfold. Within the Luhansk area there are various cities with a state of affairs corresponding to Mariupol: now the Russians are levelling Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.”

• A complete of 262 kids have been killed and 467 injured since Russia invaded Ukraine, based on newly launched figures from Ukraine’s prosecutor basic’s workplace.

• Oleksandr Senkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, has reported on Telegram that there have been explosions within the metropolis.

• The headquarters of the territorial defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Individuals’s Republic has posted to Telegram to say that one individual has been killed and 5 individuals have been injured within the final 24 hours by Ukrainian shelling into the occupied territory of Donetsk.

• The Russian missile assault on Kyiv early on Sunday was doubtless an try and disrupt the provision of western navy tools to frontline Ukrainian models, based on British intelligence.

• Britain is to produce long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, regardless of a menace on Sunday from Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to bomb contemporary targets if related weapons from the US had been delivered to Kyiv. The UK will ship a handful of tracked M270 a number of launch rocket techniques, which may hit targets as much as 50 miles away, within the hope they’ll disrupt the concentrated Russian artillery that has been pounding cities in jap Ukraine.

• Anthony Albanese, Australia’s new prime minister, has confirmed Australia will attend the G20 assembly in Bali in November regardless of Russia’s controversial attendance on the summit.

• Russia shouldn’t shut the US embassy in Moscow regardless of the disaster triggered by the battle in Ukraine as a result of the world’s two greatest nuclear powers should proceed to speak, the US ambassador to Moscow, John J Sullivan, was quoted as saying.

• Nato kicked off an almost two-week US-led naval train on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with greater than 7,000 sailors, air personnel and marines from 16 nations, together with Finland and Sweden – who aspire to affix the navy alliance. “It is crucial for us, america, and the opposite Nato nations to point out solidarity with each Finland and Sweden on this train,” Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of employees, mentioned.

• A Russian basic, Maj Gen Roman Kutuzov, was killed in jap Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist mentioned on Sunday, including to the string of high-ranking navy casualties sustained by Moscow. There was no fast remark from the Russian defence ministry.

• Russian international minister Sergei Lavrov’s go to to Serbia has been cancelled after nations round Serbia closed their airspace to his plane, based on native media studies. A senior international ministry supply informed the Interfax information company that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had closed their airspace to the aircraft that may have carried Moscow’s prime diplomat to Belgrade on Monday. “Our diplomacy has but to grasp teleportation,” the supply mentioned.

• Spain is to produce Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and Leopard battle tanks in a step up of its navy help, based on authorities sources cited by newspaper El País. Spain will present important coaching to the Ukrainian navy in learn how to use the tanks, based on the studies.

• A Ukrainian lawmaker, Yevhen Yakovenko, was detained on the Moldovan border on the request of Interpol, Moldova’s border police mentioned on Sunday. Viorel Tentiu, the pinnacle of Interpol in Moldova, mentioned in a press release that Yakovenko was placed on the checklist following accusations from Belarus of bribery and corruption.

• Russia’s sanctions in opposition to Gazprom Germania and its subsidiaries may price German taxpayers and gasoline customers an additional €5bn (£4.27bn) a yr to pay for substitute gasoline, the Welt am Sonntag weekly reported, citing trade representatives.

That’s it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I might be again in a while. Léonie Chao-Fong is taking up the reside weblog.