Ukraine War Latest: Zelensky ‘Bombs’ Russia Over Attack On Chemical Plant In Sievierodonetsk

Ukraine War Latest: Zelensky ‘Bombs’ Russia Over Attack On Chemical Plant In Sievierodonetsk.

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Here’s where things currently stand.

• Russian forces now control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk province has said as heavy fighting continued in and around the key city and civilians were told to stay underground. Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people.
• Zelenskiy has blasted the “madness” of bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk,after an airstrike hit the factory. “Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army’s strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy…it is no longer surprising that for the Russian military, for Russian commanders, for Russian soldiers, any madness is absolutely acceptable.” Local officials said the strike hit a nitric acid tank, and posted images of pink smoke billowing.
• Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region. In late-night remarks, Zelenskiy addressed the military situation and outlined some of Ukraine’s advances.
• Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions, but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, Zelenskiy noted that 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages.
• Ukraine is working on an international United Nations-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba who said Russia is playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
• Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing from Russia forces. Read more of The Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.
• The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risks “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continue.
• Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. It was announced Tuesday as representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, met at The Hague.
• A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV he has a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister will travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
• Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
• Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe. State energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin.