Russian forces have seized control of parts of eastern Ukraine, specifically the city of Severodonetsk, after street fighting broke out between Russian and Ukrainian forces on Tuesday.
The Russian military has been determined to take back strongholds from Ukraine in the Donbas region, strategically important to Ukraine in defending the country, just as leaders in the West work to impose further sanctions as punishment to Russia.
The Biden administration has offered up new weapons to Ukraine and is planning to arm them with precision-guided rocket systems, which are rumored to be able to reach targets 40 miles away or more and the new weapons could be reaching Ukraine within the next few weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address on Monday that, “The Russian army is trying to gather overwhelming forces in certain areas to put more and more pressure on our defenders,” adding, “There, in the Donbas, the Russian army has gathered the maximum combat power.”
According to a statement made by Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-backed leader of the Luhansk region, the other half of the Donbas area made up with neighboring Donetsk – a third of the forces which are now in control of Severodonetsk, are separatists.
“Street fighting continues in Severodonetsk,” said Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai.
A pair of Russian soldiers have also been found guilty of shooting rockets into civilian areas, and this will be the second war crimes trial held by Ukraine since the invasion first took place.
The court found both guilty and they have received a sentence of eleven years and six months in prison, the maximum sentence in Ukraine for war crimes being twelve years.
The attacks apparently happened on the very first day of the invasion from Russia, where soldiers shot the rockets from their vehicles into Ukraine, which hit an apartment building, an electrical station and a veterinary school. The soldiers fired around a dozen rockets in total.
The attack continued when soldiers then crossed the border into Ukraine and the two soldiers who were prosecuted, had surrendered themselves to Ukraine forces according to prosecutors.
The Russian-appointed deputy head of the military-civil administration of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian-owned TASS news agency that the area plans to become an official part of Russia in “the near future.”
On Monday, the European Union announced that it will be placing further sanctions on Russia, including an embargo on Russian oil, except for Russian oil that is delivered to the EU via pipelines, which delivers around one-third of the oil needed in Europe.
Officials have said that eventually, the embargo would cover 90 percent of previous Russian oil imports and would be phased in over several months.
GasTerra, the Dutch energy firm, has been cut off from natural gas deliveries after the company refused to pay for their order in Russian rubles.
Poland, Bulgaria and Finland have also had their gas orders suspended over refusing to pay in rubles.
Americans should be paying close attention right now as to how expensive not being energy independent can get. There is absolutely NO reason for the U.S. not to be energy independent. What makes countries – any country – strong is their natural resources. Those without have a tough time with everything.