(CNN Spanish) — Russia is not stopping its attack on Ukraine with the east as the main objective, at a time when the war is approaching its fourth month since it began on February 24.
Russia plans to isolate the key city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine in the coming days, the Ukrainian military has stated. The twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are the epicenter of the fighting in the east and the Russian armed forces have destroyed the second of three bridges between the two cities.
Look at the main news of the war this Monday, June 13:
Russia plans to isolate the key city of Severodonetsk
The twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are the epicenter of the fighting in the east and Ukrainian officials have said most of the former is now under Russian control.
Overnight on Sunday, Russian armed forces destroyed the second of three bridges linking the two cities and are heavily shelling the third, said Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration.
“As I understand it, they want to completely isolate Severodonetsk and leave it with no possibility of evacuating people or getting any kind of ammunition or help,” Hayday said, adding that he hopes the Russians “will launch all their reserves to take the city.” .
They may cut off and seize the main access road into the city, he said.
Black smoke and dirt rise from the nearby city of Severodonetsk during the battle between Russian and Ukrainian troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on June 9, 2022. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)
In this context, a leader of the separatist so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) warned on Monday that Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk must surrender or face death.
“They have two options: follow the example of their colleagues and surrender, or die,” said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the DPR’s Department of People’s Militias, Russian state media RIA Novosti reports.
“They have no other choice,” he added.
Russian forces are now in control of most of Severodonetsk, the epicenter of the bloody battle for Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, but Ukrainian lines to the city still do not appear to be fully severed.
Serhiy Hayday, head of the military administration of the Luhansk region, said on Monday Ukraine was still managing to evacuate some people from the city, but was limited by the scale of the shelling.
Amnesty International accuses Russia of war crimes in Kharkiv
Amnesty International accused Russia of war crimes during its efforts to capture the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.
In a new 40-page report, Amnesty has documented the alleged use of cluster munitions and other indiscriminate means of attack.
“The repeated shelling of residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks that killed and injured hundreds of civilians and as such constitute war crimes,” the report states.
“This is true of both cluster rocket attacks and other types of unguided rockets and unguided artillery shells, which are indiscriminate when used in close proximity to concentrations of civilians.”
Amnesty researchers claim to have “documented seven attacks in different areas of Kharkiv, where they found fins and pellets of 9N210 or 9N235 cluster munitions”.
The United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force in 2010, prohibits the use of cluster munitions. Russia is not a party to the treaty (neither is the United States).
“Cluster bombs are inherently indiscriminate,” the Amnesty report says.
“Rockets release dozens of submunitions into the air, scattering them indiscriminately over a wide area of hundreds of square meters. In addition, cluster munitions have a high failure rate, as they do not explode on impact and therefore become landmines, which pose a threat to civilians long after they are deployed.
Amnesty also said Russia has used the PTM-1S, “a small, dispersible antipersonnel mine.”
Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior adviser on crisis response, said the investigation was “yet another display of utter disregard for civilian life”.
“People have been killed in their homes and on the streets, in playgrounds and cemeteries, while queuing for humanitarian aid or buying food and medicine,” he said. “The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is outrageous.”
Russian officials have repeatedly insisted that they do not target civilians.
Russia attacks Chernihiv region with missiles
Russian forces fired three missiles into the Pryluky district of Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, forcing some residents to evacuate fearing the fire would spread, authorities said. A still image of the aftermath showed a huge plume of black smoke rising above the horizon.
“At around 1:15 p.m., the occupants fired three missiles at Pryluky in the Chernihiv region,” Ukraine’s Operational Command “North” said in a statement on Facebook.
Evacuations have been announced in the villages of Zaiizd, Petrivske, Tykhe and Sukhostavets in the Pryluky district. “The reason is the threat that the fire will spread,” Serhii Boldyrev, director of the Department of Civil Defense of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, told the Ukrainian public network.
Although no casualties are known, the Chernihiv region has not recently been a regular target of Russian attacks or bombing.
In March this year, Chernihiv “suffered great losses”, specifically the city of Chernihiv, after suffering a sustained Russian attack that left dozens dead.
Chernihiv was then occupied by Russian forces, but they withdrew in April.
White House says Putin has ‘weaponized food’ by blocking Ukraine’s grain exports
US National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby told CNN on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has absolutely weaponized food” in his invasion of Ukraine.
Kirby said the administration of US President Joe Biden and partner nations are working to overcome an export blockade that is causing global food shortages.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Friday, April 29. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
“Mr. Putin has weaponized food, and we’re working hard with the international community and the UN to find ways to get the grain out on the market, where it belongs,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN.
Russia’s export blockade, Kirby acknowledged, “is going to have a global impact.”
“We’re going to feel some of that probably here as well, and that’s why we’re working so hard on trying to find alternate routes to get some of that grain out,” he said.
Earlier this week, CNN reported that Russia’s war in Ukraine could push 49 million people into famine or similar, due to its devastating impact on global food supplies and prices, according to UN estimates.