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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 116 of
the invasion
Nato chief warns war could last years; Russia sends
many reservists to Sievierodonetsk battle, says regional governor
Maya Yang,
Tom Ambrose and Zaina Alibhai
Sun 19 Jun
2022 01.41 BST
Russia’s war in Ukraine could take years, Nato
secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said. “We must prepare for the fact that it
could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” he said. “Even if
the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy
and food prices.”
Russia was sending a large number of reserve
troops to Sievierodonetsk from other battle zones to try to gain full control
of the besieged eastern city, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region said on
Sunday. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, they will throw in all the
reserves they have … because there are so many of them there already, they’re
at critical mass,” Serhiy Gaidai said on national television.
Two top commanders of fighters who defended the
Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for
investigation, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported. Citing an unnamed
Russian law enforcement source, TASS said late on Saturday that Svyatoslav
Palamar, a deputy commander of the Azov battalion, and Serhiy Volynsky, the
commander of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, were moved
to Russia.
A big explosion rocked an area near
Sievierodonetsk on Saturday. Rodion Miroshnik, an official in the self-styled
separatist administration of the Luhansk People’s Republic, posted a video of
what he said was the cloud on the Telegram messaging app.
Five civilians were killed on Saturday in
Ukrainian strikes on the eastern separatist city of Donetsk, according to local
authorities. “As a result of the bombardment by Ukrainian forces, five people
were killed and 12 others were wounded in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the
authorities said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Several Russian missiles hit a gasworks in the
Izium district in eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synehubov said
on Saturday. “A large-scale fire broke out, rescuers localised the fire,” he
wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters reported him adding that some
other buildings had also been damaged.
Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot
in Novomoskovsk, a town in eastern Ukraine, on Saturday. According to the head
of the regional administration, three people have been sent to the hospital.
The Pentagon is considering sending four
additional rocket launchers to Ukraine, Politico reports. According to US
defence department officials, speaking to the outlet on anonymity, the US may
likely send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems, making their
total number about eight. The decision would be “based on Ukrainian immediate
needs,” the official told Politico.
Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner
exchange, the Kyiv Independent reports. Five captured Ukrainian individuals
were returned to Ukraine on 18 June in exchange for five captured Russian individuals,
according to the Ukrainian defence ministry’s intelligence directorate.
Yuliia Paievska AKA “Taira”, the Ukrainian
captured paramedic who was freed from Russian captivity during the week,
released a video thanking Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for her
release. “I always believed that everything would be exactly this, and everyone
who is now on the other side, they know everything will work out,” she said.
Zelenskiy presented state awards to border guards
in Odesa as he visited the troops in southern Ukraine on Saturday. “I want to
thank you from the people of Ukraine, from our state, for the great work you
are doing, for your heroic service,” the president said. “It is important that
you are alive. As long as you live, there is a strong Ukrainian wall that
protects our country.”
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