Ukraine live: US sending medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine
The Biden administration is getting ready to send Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been pleading for as they struggle to stall Russian progress. The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that will include helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems and tactical vehicles.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have now seized half of Sievierodonetsk, a key city in eastern Ukraine, as heavy fighting between Russians and Ukrainians continues.
Follow Wednesday's developments in Ukraine as they unfolded in our blog below:
Russian forces in a “frenzied push” have seized half of Sievierodonetsk, the eastern Ukrainian city that is key to Moscow's efforts to complete the capture of the industrial Donbas region, the local mayor said Tuesday.
“The city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block,” Oleksandr Striuk said.
Striuk said heavy street fighting continued and artillery barrages threatened the lives of the estimated 13,000 civilians still sheltering in the ruined city that once was home to more than 100,000.
A Russian airstrike on Sievierodonetsk hit a tank of nitric acid at a chemical factory, causing a huge leak of fumes, according to Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region. He posted a picture of a big cloud hanging over the city and urged residents to stay inside and wear gas masks or improvised ones.
Haidai said later Tuesday that “most of Sievierodonetsk" was under Russian control, though he added that fierce fighting continued and the city wasn’t surrounded.
Sievierodonetsk is important to Russian efforts to capture the Donbas before more Western arms arrive to bolster
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