Russian military forces have made progress in capturing Donbas, slowly seizing more territory across the eastern region of Ukraine. Moscow now controls over 95% of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, the two regions that make up the Donbas.
Sievierodonetsk, one of two large cities in Luhansk yet to be fully captured by Russian troops, lost its final bridge connected to its twin city of Lysychansk, said Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration.
Russian forces destroyed two of three bridges connecting the cities over the weekend. Now, all three are fully impassible, Haidai said in a facebook-video posted Monday, adding that evacuating residents and transporting goods would no longer be possible.
Following botched early attempts in the invasion to capture Kyiv and the second-largest city of Kharkiv without proper planning and coordination, Russia turned its attention to the Donbas, a region of mines and factories where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 .
Meanwhile, Ukraine is losing between 100 and 200 soldiers a day, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told the BBC, as Russia has “thrown pretty much everything non-nuclear at the front.”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov described the combat situation as “extremely difficult,” using a reference to an ancient deity of sacrifice by saying: “The Russian Moloch has plenty of means to devour human lives to satisfy its imperial ego.”
Latest developments
►After years of limited cutbacks in nuclear warheads among the nine nations that possess them, nuclear arsenals figure to increase over the next decade, according to findings in the 2022 yearbook released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
India, China provide large markets for Russian energy exports that fund war
Despite Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is finding ample markets for its energy products, keeping the Kremlin’s war machine well funded.
China, India and other Asian nations are becoming an increasingly vital source of oil revenue for Moscow, disregarding strong pressure from the US not to increase their purchases as the European Union and other allies cut off energy imports from Russia in line with the sanctions. Those sales are boosting Russian export profits at a time when Washington and its allies are trying to limit them.
The Finland-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air said Monday that Russia has received about 93 billion euros ($97.4 billion) in revenue from the sale of oil, natural gas and coal since the Feb. 24 invasion. China has overtaken Germany as the biggest buyer, spending 12.6 billion over that time. Germany, which is trying to wean itself from a dependency on Russian energy, has spent 12.1 billion euros.
“Revenue from fossil fuel exports is the key enabler of Russia’s military buildup and aggression, providing 40% of federal budget revenue,” the center said.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism