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U.S. Attorney General Announces Team To Assist Ukraine In Tracking Down Russian War Criminals
['Rfe Rl']
Date: 2022-06
Russian forces have captured two towns near the embattled cities of Lysychansk and Syevyerodonetsk in the Luhansk region, Ukraine's military said on June 21.
The captured towns -- Pidlisne and Myrna Dolyna -- are in the direction of Toshkivka-Pidlisne, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its evening report.
The Ukrainian command also said Russian forces have had “partial success” in the area of Horske and in the direction of Bila Hor, while Ukrainian soldiers successfully repulsed an assault in the direction of Vysokiy.
Ukraine confirmed earlier that Russia had taken the frontline village of Toshkivka.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said the military situation in Luhansk was very difficult as Russia increased moves to evict Ukrainian troops from critical areas.
"That is really the toughest spot. The occupiers are pressing strongly," Zelenskiy said in an evening video address.
Russian forces have caused "catastrophic" damage as they continue to bombard Lysychansk and its twin city of Syevyerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, where the situation has become "extremely difficult," Ukrainian officials said earlier.
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Ukrainian defenders held on to the Azot chemical plant in the city. About 500 civilians are sheltering at the plant, and the Luhansk region's military governor Serhiy Hayday said in an interview with the Associated Press that Russian forces were turning the area “into ruins.”
The Ukrainian command also said the its forces repulsed a reconnaissance attempt in and around Metyolkine, which Ukraine on June 20 confirmed had been captured by the Russians.
The head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, Oleh Synegubov, said at least 15 civilians were killed in the region by Russian shelling on June 21.
Six died in and around Kharkiv and another six in Chuhuiv, some 40 kilometers southeast of Kharkiv, Synegubov said. Three died in Zolochiv, 40 kilometers to the northwest of the city.
The Ukrainian command reports Russian shelling of settlements in Kramatorsk, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Novopavlovsk, and Zaporizhzhya.
Russian troops are regrouping and consolidating units in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian command said this is "due to significant losses.” The claim could not be independently verified.
While Russia has been concentrating its firepower on the Donbas, advanced Western weapons systems donated to Ukraine have begun to make their mark elsewhere on the front line, British military intelligence said in its daily bulletin on June 21.
Ukrainian forces last week claimed their first successful use of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the British Defense Ministry said on Twitter.
"The target of the attack was almost certainly the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which was delivering weapons and personnel to Snake Island in the northwestern Black Sea," it said, adding that Ukraine had largely neutralized Russia's ability to establish control in the northwestern Black Sea.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles had struck an airfield near the Ukrainian port of Odesa in response to a Ukrainian attack on gas production platforms in the Black Sea, Russian news agencies reported. The attack was aimed at destroying hangars in which drones were stored, TASS reported, quoting the ministry.
Ukraine said an attack it launched on June 20 took aim at an oil-drilling platform that it said was being used by Russian troops as a military installation.
The attack was the first such strike against offshore energy infrastructure since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Odesa's regional military administration, told an online briefing that Russia had organized small garrisons and stored equipment on the rig.
Russia on June 20 accused Ukraine of firing on a Black Sea oil drilling platform off the Crimean Peninsula, leaving three people injured and another seven missing.
Olga Kovitidi, a lawmaker in annexed Crimea's Russia-installed government, later said two other platforms had also been hit.
At least one strike was confirmed by Bratchuk, who said such platforms were "legal military targets."
Bratchuk also said Ukrainian forces had "dealt a significant blow to the Russian garrison" on Snake Island, a Black Sea territory taken by Moscow at the start of its offensive.
But he acknowledged that Russia's Black Sea fleet still dominated the area.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS
[END]
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