Zelenskyy claims Russia preparing to launch fresh attacks on Kharkiv and Sloviansk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on June 21 that the Russian army is preparing a new offensive on the city of Kharkiv. While addressing an event on World Refugee Day about the conditions created by Russian forces, he stated that the war has displaced nearly 12 million Ukrainians, five million of whom had to flee the nation completely. After weeks of severe shelling, Russia withdrew from Kharkiv in mid-May.

"Now the Russian army is trying to gather forces to attack Kharkiv again. We de-occupied this region. And they want to do it again, and we see it," Zelenskyy said in a virtual speech at the ISPI Global Policy Forum in Italy.

With a population of around 500,000 people, Mykolaiv is frequently bombed, the Ukrainian president claimed. Russian troops intend to seize and completely demolish Sloviansk, which had a population of 100,000 before the conflict, Zelenskyy stated after mentioning other destroyed cities such as Mariupol and Severodonetsk.

Zelenskyy said on June 20 that two critical cities in eastern Ukraine are witnessing the "most difficult" fighting, as Russian forces increased pressure and took territory along a front-line river. Toshkivka, a settlement on the predominantly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river south of Severodonetsk, has been claimed by Moscow's separatist proxies as having been taken.

Russia Ukraine war

According to Zelenskyy, shelling in Kharkiv and Odesa has persisted, and Russia's attack in Donbass, where soldiers have concentrated their formidable artillery might, has been "brutal." Ukrainians are defending Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, and this entire territory, which is the toughest, Zelenskyy said in an evening address, after predicting Moscow would expand strikes ahead of an EU summit anticipated to welcome Kyiv's application to join the club.

According to the governor, overnight, Russian soldiers shelled and damaged a school in Adviivka, Donetsk region. Further, the Russian military shelled the eastern town of Lysychansk nonstop on Sunday night and Monday, but the governor of Luhansk stated Monday night was rather quiet in comparison to the previous two "heavy" nights. Across the river in the city of Severodonetsk, Serhiy Haidai reported: "fierce fighting" in the industrial zone. According to him, all key infrastructure in the city has been destroyed, and there is no centralised water, electricity, or gas.

Image: AP