Ukraine pleas for ammunition grow amid intense firefight in East

KYIV, Ukraine — War often creates previously unthinkable alliances. As the saying goes: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Taras Karasiichuk, 38, one of Ukraine’s founding generation of LGBTQ rights activists, found himself entering into one amid Russia’s invasion.

He and friends from across the spectrum of sexuality raised money for the Azov Regiment, a volunteer military unit that has proved to be one of Ukraine’s strongest, but whose ranks include members of far-right groups — the same ones that have terrorized the LGBTQ community here for almost a decade.

“The whole battalion knows they’ve gotten money from ‘the gays,’ and they are fine with it. I say if they can organize a successful resistance to Russia, it’s good,” he said. “It may shock your typical Western liberal activist, but when you witness war, your values change. You realize your roots are in a nation and that having a strong one is very important.”

The defense of the city of Severodonetsk, which is central to the Kremlin’s goal of capturing eastern Ukraine, continues in the face of fierce artillery bombardment and airstrikes. Ukraine continues to have a “distinct disadvantage in terms of artillery systems” compared with Russia, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, despite pleas from the nation’s leaders for help from Western countries.

Here are updates from across the country:

Severodonetsk: One of Ukraine’s last holdouts in the Luhansk region, the city has been shattered by intense fighting. But it remains unclear how much of the city invaders now control as battles continue over the Azot Industrial zone and the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway. Meanwhile, Russian forces have shelled neighboring cities that could supply Ukraine’s troops.

Elsewhere in Donbas: “Russia wants to destroy every city in Donbas,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday as fierce fighting has continued. “Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol. All these ruins in once happy cities, black traces of fires, craters from explosions — this is all that Russia can give to its neighbors, Europe and the world.” Images collected by U.S. satellite company Maxar Technologies show cratered fields and entire city blocks pulverized in Luhansk and Donetsk, where Russia’s attacks have been focused in recent weeks. In Rubizhne, just up the road from Severodonetsk, before-and-after pictures show parts of the city reduced to rubble.

Slovyansk: Russian forces are advancing toward this city in the Donetsk region, where they have made minor gains to the north of the city. The ISW forecasts that successfully attacking Slovyansk will be difficult due to challenges crossing the Siverskyi Donets river.

Kherson: Ukraine said Friday that Russian forces are fortifying defenses after its troops launched a successful counterattack against Russian forces around Kherson and have reclaimed some of the territory it previously lost in this southern region. The ISW said this week that Moscow is stepping up operations in part of the region following Ukrainian counterstrikes.

Mariupol: The Russian military is struggling to provide basic public services to civilians, according to the British Defense Ministry. Residents have no access to adequate social or medical services in the city, which is at risk of a major cholera outbreak. The cholera cases reported since May are especially concerning as the medical system is reportedly near collapse as a result of mismanagement by Russian authorities, according to the ISW.

Reis Thebault and Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Russian forces advanced toward the town of Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, pummeling Ukrainian troops with artillery as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced it was his “destiny” to gain control of territory — comparing his quest to that of Russia’s first emperor, Peter I.

Pro-Kremlin media reported that Russian forces were beginning a new stage of their assault on the east, with plans to soon take over Slovyansk and the nearby town of Kramatorsk. The Ukrainian military said in a statement that Russian forces are focusing the fight on Slovyansk, targeting villages on its outskirts even as Ukrainian forces fight to hold onto their territory.

The boom of artillery could be heard in both towns, and fierce street fighting continued in the nearby strategic city of Severodonetsk. Some 10,000 civilians remain stuck in that city, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said in a televised interview.

BRUSSELS — Ukraine is one of us. It is marching toward a European future. The future of Europe is, in fact, the future of Ukraine.

These are the messages top European Union officials have delivered since Russia launched its full-scale invasion and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for a fast-track to membership. But ahead of an E.U summit on the issue this month, these messages look increasingly at odds with where member states actually stand.

It is not yet clear if the 27 E.U. countries will grant Ukraine “candidate status” — an early step on the long path to membership — or some sort of symbolic pre-candidate status, diplomats said. What seems certain is that Ukraine, as it fights for its life, will be let down.

As inflation hit a new peak of 8.6 percent in May, President Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday for some of the high prices for energy and food.

Biden said in a statement that the latest snapshot issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, known as the consumer price index, showing inflation remaining at the fastest pace in 40 years underscored why it continues to be the top economic issue for the administration. After acknowledging that inflation was “not coming down as sharply and as quickly as we must see,” the president turned his attention to the part Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had in the bigger economic picture.

“Putin’s Price Hike hit hard in May here and around the world: high gas prices at the pump, energy, and food prices accounted for around half of the monthly price increases, and gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon in many places since Russian troops began to threaten Ukraine,” the president said in a statement. “Even as we continue our work to defend freedom in Ukraine, we must do more — and quickly — to get prices down here in the United States.”

Biden has largely blamed the inflation surge on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has spilled over into sectors beyond energy and food, such as airfares. Energy prices around the world have been rising for months, a reflection of the continuing ripple effects from the ongoing war in Ukraine. But some experts, including Chris Rupkey, the chief economist at the research firm FWDBonds, have said inflation’s effect on areas such as housing “isn’t just Russia and Ukraine anymore.”

The president called on Congress to help alleviate some of the financial burden caused by inflation, reiterating that the administration would “continue to do everything we can to lower prices for the American people.”

“We all have work to do to get inflation down,” he said in a statement.

Rachel Siegel contributed to this report.

During a live broadcast to university students in Britain on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the invading forces is to “delete” Ukraine’s history.

Speaking at an event organized by the Ukrainian Students Union and attended by students from several universities, Zelensky stressed the importance of continuing to support Ukraine 107 days into a war in which the Ukrainian people have been “tested for survival.”

He then spoke of what he believes is the Russian mission.

“The [Russian] mission is to delete our history, our state, our identity, and to deny our existence,” Zelensky said. “And as such to tell the world that we never existed that we are an artificially created people like a variety of some kind of plants or animals.”

Some of the universities in attendance included Birmingham, Cambridge, City University of London and Oxford.

The Ukrainian president reflected on an invasion that, he said, has had Russians “talk about peaceful goals but … they’re killing children and women.”

“This war is visible and monstrous,” he said.

Zelensky’s comments came a day after Putin compared himself to Peter the Great, the emperor who led Russia’s 18th-century territorial expansion.

There is evidence of a potential cholera outbreak in Mariupol that could kill thousands as a result of the port city’s water supply being poisoned by blood from dead bodies that have yet to be collected, according to the mayor.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko, who is no longer in the Russian-controlled city, said on national television Friday that the wells in Mariupol were contaminated due to the corpses that remain throughout the city, according to Reuters.

“There is an outbreak of dysentery and cholera,” Boychenko said. “This is unfortunately the assessment of our doctors: that the war which took over 20,000 residents … unfortunately, with these infection outbreaks, will claim thousands more Mariupolites.”

About 100,000 people, of a population that was once roughly 430,000, remain in Mariupol more than three months into the invasion, according to Ukrainian officials.

He reiterated the dire situation to the BBC, saying, “There are a lot of dead in Mariupol.” Boychenko noted that the health issue in Mariupol has been compounded with a garbage collection system that hasn’t been operational since February.

“This water is already poisoned. It has already propagated throughout the city,” he said to the BBC. “The occupation authorities bring water to the city, but not enough. People still go to the wells and take that poisoned water.”

Former president Barack Obama emphasized Friday that “the human costs will continue to mount” in a war in Ukraine that is “far from over.”

Obama spoke at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit for nearly an hour on a wide range of topics, including the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. During his address, he was stern in telling the world that the end of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is nowhere in sight.

“Make no mistake: This war is far from over,” he said. “The human costs will continue to mount.”

Obama noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is failing to achieve his aims inside of Ukraine and beyond,” and that many Russians have left their country in what he described as “a blow to [Russia’s] present and future.” He also commended the Ukrainian people for their “heroic resistance to Russian aggression.”

“They’ve united to defend not just their sovereignty, but their democratic identity, and have rallied much of the world behind the values of self-determination and human dignity,” Obama said.