SLOVIANSK, Ukraine — Fighting raged on
Tuesday in and around Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as
Russian troops tried
to build on recent battlefield gains, while NATO pressed ahead with Finland and
Sweden’s momentous membership bids.
اضافة اعلان
With the war well into its fifth month,
Kyiv’s allies
committed on Tuesday to supporting Ukraine through what is likely to be a
lengthy and expensive recovery, agreeing on the need for broad reforms to boost
transparency and tackle corruption.
The two days of talks in the Swiss city of Lugano
heard that rebuilding the war-ravaged country is estimated to cost at least
$750 billion.
Kremlin forces
were pounding their next key target, the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk, with
“massive” shelling, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday.
At least two people were killed and seven others
wounded in strikes that targeted the city’s central market, authorities said.
Donetsk is the southwestern half of the Donbas
which, unlike the northeastern half — Lugansk — has not been almost entirely
captured by Russia.
Russian bombardments have killed at least six people
and injured another 19 since Sunday in Sloviansk, which had a pre-war
population of around 100,000.
In Moscow, the defense ministry reported that
Russian forces had targeted the city of Kharkiv with “high-precision” weapons
over the past 24 hours, killing up to 150 Ukrainian servicemen.
Russia also said it was investigating the torture of
Russian soldiers held prisoner in Ukraine that were recently released as part
of a prisoner swap.
‘Fighting continues’
In Brussels,
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the foreign
ministers of Sweden and Finland hailed Tuesday as “historic” when they kicked
off accession procedures for the two countries that will expand the military
alliance to 32 members.
“The membership of
both Finland and Sweden will not only contribute to our own security but to the
collective security of the alliance,” said Finland’s Pekka Haavisto, after
protocols were signed launching the required ratification process.
Sweden and Finland
both announced their intention to drop decades of military non-alignment and
become part of
NATO in the wake of Russia invading Ukraine in February.
After abandoning
its initial war aim of capturing Kyiv following tough Ukrainian resistance,
Russia has since focused its efforts on securing control of the Donbas.
Ukraine said its
forces were still defending “a small part” of Lugansk province, despite Moscow
saying its troops were now in full control there after capturing the strategic
city of
Lysychansk, near the border with Donetsk.
The fall of
Lysychansk on Sunday, a week after the Ukrainian army also retreated from the
neighbouring city of Severodonetsk, frees up Russian forces to advance on
Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk.
“Fighting continues
on the administrative borders of the region,” the Ukrainian president’s office
said on Tuesday.
In a sign
Moscow was trying to consolidate supply lines for its ongoing push, Ukraine’s armed
forces said Russian troops in Lugansk were “taking measures” to restore
transport infrastructure behind the fighting lines.
‘Provocations’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been reiterating calls for more
weapons from the West so Kyiv can keep up the resistance and its counter-offensives
to regain lost territories.
Appearing by video
on Tuesday at an annual forum hosted by The Economist magazine, he predicted
Belarus — an ally of Moscow — would not be drawn into the war but
“provocations” by its northern neighbor was likely to continue.
Belarusian leader
Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday his army had intercepted missiles fired
at his country by Ukrainian forces last week.
Meanwhile, as the
meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Switzerland ended, leaders from some 40
countries signed the Lugano Declaration pinpointing principles for rebuilding
Ukraine.
“Our work prepares for the time after the war even as the
war is still raging,” said Swiss President and co-host Ignazio Cassis.
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