Ukraine – Russia, today’s news on the war: Lugansk will fall soon for the US. Isolated Severodonetsk

Russia will be able to conquer Lugansk in a few weeks, thanks to its superiority of men and means on the field. The prediction is of the Americans, while the Moscow army continues to target Severodonetsk by destroying its bridges to isolate the city. Ukrainians resist in the industrial area and in the Azot factory, but the risk for the hundreds of civilians refugees inside is very high, after a fire caused by a raid. Some of them, according to pro-Russian separatists, managed to escape.

01.00 German media: Marder ready but Berlin’s OK is missing

The first Marder vehicles are ready, but the German government’s ok to supply these armored infantry vehicles to Ukraine is lacking: this is said by the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, quoted by the daily Bild. Rheinmetall chief executive Armin Papperger told Bild that the company is repairing around 100 Marder vehicles and that some of them are already usable. However – underlines Papperger – it is up to Berlin to decide where to send them.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, also spoke on the issue last night, who attacked on Twitter: “Why are you refusing the Ukrainian army these Marders, while Ukraine is bleeding in the Donbass before your eyes?”

00.30 Zelensky: “Moscow tries to deploy reserve forces in the Donbass”

“Russian generals see their people simply as cannon fodder.” This was stated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, announcing in the latest video published on social media that “the Russian army is trying to deploy reserve forces in the Donbass”. “But what reserves can they have now?” Zelensky asks, reporting that “it looks like they will try to throw poorly trained conscripts and other people gathered in a secret mobilization into battle.”

00.00 Governor of Lugansk: still 500 civilians in Azot

About 500 civilians still remain inside the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, according to local authorities cited by the Kiev Independent. The governor of the far eastern Ukrainian oblast of Lugansk, Serhiy Haidai, explains that among these people there are about 40 children. Two days ago, Russian bombing of the factory caused the loss of tons of oil and the outbreak of a violent fire.