Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
These images purport to show how the pro-Russian LPR is gaining ground, with the separatists claiming that Ukrainian forces are retreating.
The footage shows a tank rolling by and opening fire from a hidden position before the footage cuts to a destroyed bridge, under which there appear to be the bodies of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers.
What appears to be Ukrainian weaponry, which appears to have been rounded up by the LPR soldiers, can also be seen towards the end of the footage.
The images were obtained from the pro-Russian, so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), on Wednesday, 22nd June, with the LPR saying in a statement that the images showed “the situation in the Gorsky area” and that the “Ukrainian Nazis” were retreating.
We have not been able to independently verify the footage or the claims.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 119th day of the invasion.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February and 22nd June, Russia had lost about 34,230 personnel, 1,496 tanks, 3,614 armoured combat vehicles, 752 artillery units, 239 multiple launch rocket systems, 99 air defence systems, 216 warplanes, 182 helicopters, 614 drones, 137 cruise missiles, 14 warships, 2,543 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 60 units of special equipment.
The Ukrainian military has said that it has launched airstrikes on Zmiinyi Island, which is also known as Snake Island, causing “significant losses” to Russia’s forces there in an operation that it says is ongoing.
Russia has conducted an anti-ship missile exercise in the Baltic Sea amid escalating tensions with NATO member Lithuania after the country blocked the transit of goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Russian Foreign Ministry press secretary Maria Zakharova has said that Moscow’s response to Lithuania banning the transit of goods, sanctioned by the EU, to Kaliningrad will not only be diplomatic but also practical.
Ukrainian forces have said that they have been successfully thwarting fresh Russian attempts to advance in the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine, but Russian forces have captured several settlements near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, with 568 civilians believed to still be sheltering in Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant.
Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, has urged locals in the Kherson region to evacuate, to help Ukrainian forces “deoccupy” the area.
British intelligence has claimed that the pro-Russian, so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) may have lost about 55 per cent of its original forces.
President Zelenskyy said that a “historic week” has begun as Kyiv awaits a decision from Brussels regarding its EU candidate status, with the EU expected to approve the application by the end of the week.
This comes after the European Parliament adopted a resolution recommending that the European Union grant Ukraine the status of candidate country for EU membership. Some 438 MEPs voted in favour of the resolution, with 65 voting against and 94 abstaining.
Zelenskyy, speaking to the African Union on Monday, 20th June, also accused Russia of holding Africa “hostage” over grain and fertiliser shortages.
