Ukraine live: At least 1,500 dead in city of Sievierodonetsk, says mayor
Fighting around the city of Sievierodonetsk has intensified, with at least 1,500 casualties and 60% of residential buildings destroyed. About 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city, according to the local mayor, with Sievierodonetsk the only part of the Luhansk region in Donbas still under Ukrainian government control.
Elsewhere, two Russian soldiers accused of war crimes have appeared at a second trial hearing in the northeastern town of Kotelva, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the West on Thursday to send multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Follow developments on Friday as they unfolded in our blog below:
Two Russian soldiers accused of war crimes in Ukraine appeared at a second trial hearing in the northeastern town of Kotelva.
The Russian servicemen, Alexander Alexeevich Ivanov and Alexander Vladimirovich Bobykin, are charged with shelling civilian infrastructure with a multiple rocket launcher. Both soldiers pleaded guilty at the hearing held at the Kotelevsky District Court.
If convicted, the servicemen could face up to 12 years in prison.
Their defence attorney asked for eight years, saying the two were only following their officers’ orders.
Asked if they wanted to make any declarations at the end of the hearing, Bobykin said: “I admit what I did, I regret the actions our troops committed, I believe that in the future the war will end and the peace we are all waiting for will come.”
Ivanov made no comment.
The trial is adjourned to 31 May.
(AP)
The Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk is the centre of fierce fighting in the east. Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk says it’s holding out even though a Russian reconnaissance and sabotage group went into a city hotel.
Stryuk said at
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