Russians advance, Zelenskiy expects escalation as EU set to welcome
Ukraine
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[June 20, 2022]
By Natalia Zinets and Max Hunder
KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces captured
territory along a frontline river in eastern Ukraine on Monday, and
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy predicted Moscow would escalate attacks
ahead of a summit of European leaders expected to welcome Kyiv's bid to
join the EU.
Moscow's separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town
on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river,
south of Sievierodonetsk, which has become the main battlefield city in
recent weeks.
Ukraine acknowledged that Moscow had success in Toshkivka and said the
Russians were trying to gain a foothold there to make a breakthrough
into the wider, Ukrainian-held pocket of the eastern Donbas region. It
also confirmed a Russian claim to have captured Metyolkine on
Sievierodonetsk's eastern outskirts.
"Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of
its hostile activities," Zelenskiy said in a Sunday nightly video
address. "We are preparing. We are ready."
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Moscow, for its part, denounced a decision by EU member Lithuania to ban
transport of some basic goods to Kaliningrad, a Russian outpost on the
Baltic Sea surrounded by EU territory.
The Lithuanian ban, which took effect on Saturday, blocks shipments of
coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology to the
outpost. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the move illegal and
unprecedented, and said Moscow would announce a response soon.
EU leaders at a summit later this week are expected to give their
blessing to Ukraine becoming an official candidate to join, a decision
that will be marked as a triumph in Kyiv.
Though it would take years for Ukraine to enter the EU, for the bloc to
reach deep into the heart of the former Soviet Union would bring about
one of Europe's biggest economic and social transformations since the
Cold War. Ukraine applied to join just four days after Russian President
Vladimir Putin ordered his troops across the border in February.
Putin says the "special military operation" is aimed at disarming a
neighbour Russia views as a threat and protecting Russian speakers
there. Kyiv believes Moscow's true aim is to restore control over
Ukraine and erase its national identity.
In the strongest step yet proposed by Kyiv to enforce a cultural break
with Moscow, Ukraine's parliament passed bills on Sunday that would ban
the publication of books or the public broadcast of music by citizens of
post-Soviet Russia.
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The measures, which require Zelenskiy's signature to become law, "are
designed to help Ukrainian authors share quality content with the widest
possible audience, which after the Russian invasion do not accept any
Russian creative product on a physical level", said Culture Minister
Oleksandr Tkachenko.
TOSHKIVKA FOOTHOLD
Russian forces were defeated in an assault on the capital Kyiv in March,
but have since launched a new assault to capture more territory in the
east and solidify their hold on the south.
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![](../images/062022PIX/news_c5.jpg)
A woman walks past destroyed structures at a local market following
recent shelling in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Donetsk,
Ukraine June 19, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
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The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in
recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating their overwhelming
artillery firepower on a Ukrainian-held pocket of the Donbas, which
Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
Much of the fighting has taken place along the
Siverskyi Donets river. Russia's TASS news agency quoted Vitaly
Kiselev, an aide to the interior minister of the self-proclaimed
Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic separatist administration,
as saying on Monday the town of Toshkivka had been "liberated".
The town is located on the river's western bank, south of
Sievierodonetsk's twin city Lysychansk, a key Ukrainian bastion.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai, acknowledged that a Russian
attack on Toshkivka "had a degree of success". Russian forces were
trying to break through and gain a foothold there and near the small
village of Ustinovka further north along the river, he said. The
Russians were bringing a huge amount of heavy equipment there
including tanks.
He also confirmed Russia's claim to have captured Metyolkine on
Sievierodonetsk's eastern outskirts. "Unfortunately, we do not
control Metyolkine today," he said.
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksander Stryuk said Russian forces
controlled about two-thirds of the city, including most residential
areas, and Moscow kept throwing forces at the Ukrainians in an
attempt to take over completely.
"I hope that the city will hold and, once it has the advantage in
firepower, we will be able to liberate it without leaving it first,"
he said.
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International concern has focused on trying to restore Ukrainian
exports of food, now shut by a de facto Russian blockade. Ukraine is
one of the world's leading sources of grain and food oils, leading
to fears of global shortages and hunger.
"We call on Russia to deblockade the ports," EU foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell told reporters. "It is inconceivable, one cannot
imagine that millions 4of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine
while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger."
"This is a real war crime, so I cannot imagine that this will last
much longer," he said on arriving to a meeting of EU foreign
ministers in Luxembourg.
Russia blames the food crisis on Western sanctions curbing its own
exports.
The war has also disrupted global energy markets, including Russian
shipments of oil and gas to Europe, still the continent's main
source of energy and Moscow's primary source of income. Moscow
blames EU sanctions for a decline in gas export pipelines, saying
the sanctions had prevented it from restoring pumping equipment sent
for repairs.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff)
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