Ukraine says Russia strikes Donbas, without hitting targets

kyiv, April 30 (Reuters) – Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Saturday but failed to capture three target areas, the Ukrainian military said, while Moscow said Western sanctions on Russia and arms shipments to Ukraine were preventing peace negotiations.

The Russians were trying to capture the Lyman areas in Donetsk and Sievierodonetsk and Popasna in Lugansk, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a daily update. “Without success, the fight continues,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in remarks published on Saturday morning, said the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia was part of the peace talks, which he said were difficult but continued daily by liaison. video. read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted since the Russian invasion began on February 24 that sanctions must be strengthened and cannot be part of the negotiations. He said on Friday there was a high risk the talks would end because of what he called Russia’s “killing people playbook.”

Ukraine accuses Russian troops of atrocities in areas near the capital, kyiv, which they previously occupied. Moscow denies the claims.

Lavrov said that if the United States and other NATO countries were really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis, they should stop sending weapons to kyiv. read more

French President Emmanuel Macron told Zelenskiy during a call on Saturday that his country would step up military and humanitarian support to Ukraine.

In Washington, US President Joe Biden’s proposed $33 billion aid package for Ukraine, including $20 billion for weapons, has received bipartisan support. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that she hoped Congress would pass the package as soon as possible. read more

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West say that the fascist accusation is unfounded and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

The war has turned cities into rubble, killed thousands and forced 5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad. After failing to capture the capital, Russia is now focusing on eastern and southern Ukraine.

Moscow hopes to take full control of the eastern Donbas region made up of Luhansk and Donetsk, parts of which were already controlled by Russian-backed separatists before the invasion.

Moscow said on Saturday that its artillery units had hit 389 Ukrainian targets overnight.

Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, said air defenses prevented a Ukrainian plane from entering the region and as a result the shelling hit parts of an oil terminal, Russian news agencies reported.

The governor of another Russian region, Kursk, said several projectiles were fired from Ukraine on Saturday at a checkpoint near its border. Roman Starovoit said in a video on his Telegram channel that there were no casualties or damage.

On the Ukrainian side, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said the Russians were shelling the entire region “but they cannot break through our defense.” He said that civilians would continue to be evacuated despite the difficult situation.

Gaidai said two schools and 20 houses were destroyed by Russian strikes on Friday in the Luhansk towns of Rubizhne and Popasna.

Mykola Khanatov, head of the military administration in Popasna, said Russian troops fired on two buses sent to evacuate civilians from the city on Friday and there was no word from the drivers. He did not say how many people were on the buses.

Russia’s TASS news agency, reporting from the scene, said 25 civilians, including six children, left the territory of the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged southern port of Mariupol on Saturday. It was unclear where they had gone and Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

There were also reports of attacks in places outside the Donbas, including the southern areas of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where the regional governor said a residential area had been shelled overnight.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Russia had been forced to amalgamate and redeploy disparate units depleted from failed advances in northeastern Ukraine. read more

Reuters was unable to independently verify reports of what was happening on the ground.

Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister, Taras Vysotskiy, accused Russian forces of stealing hundreds of thousands of tons of grain from the areas they occupy and said he feared an additional 1.5 million tons were at risk of being stolen. read more

Ukraine had said on Thursday that Russian theft of grain from its territory was adding to the threat to global food security posed by disruptions to spring planting and the blockade of Ukrainian ports.

The Kremlin on Friday denied the allegations and said it did not know where the information came from.

According to data from the International Grains Council, Ukraine was the fourth largest grain exporter in the world in the 2020/21 season, selling 44.7 million tons abroad. The volume of exports has fallen drastically since the invasion.

Zelenskiy said in his evening speech on Friday that fuel shortages would soon end in Ukraine even though Russian forces had damaged several oil depots. Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Ukrainian operators had obtained contracts with European providers.

Additional reporting by Reuters journalists; Written by Estelle Shirbon; Edited by Catherine Evans, Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson

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