Kyiv.

In view of the advance of Russian troops in the east of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the EU for the planned new sanctions package and at the same time called for new punitive measures.

"Ultimately, there should be no significant economic ties between the free world and the terrorist state," he said in his nightly video address. "We will work on new restrictions against Russia for this war."

Thanks to the EUs planned oil boycott, Russia will lose "tens of billions of euros", which can no longer be used to finance terror could be used. At the same time, Zelenskyi reiterated his demands for the delivery of heavy weapons to the West. Meanwhile, the US government announced that it would deliver modern multiple rocket launchers as part of a new security package.

Zelenskyj: Liberate areas occupied by heavy weapons

As soon as these heavy weapons exist, the army should use the Liberation of Russian-occupied territories begin. Ukraine will not rush to recapture its territories if that means tens of thousands of victims, but will instead wait for the necessary weapons, Zelenskyy said in Kyiv at a meeting with Slovak President Zuzana Caputova.

For weeks he has been demanding the delivery of heavy weapons from the West in order to ward off the Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine and push back the Russian troops.

Biden: US to deliver modern missile systems to Ukraine

The US government will deliver modern missile systems to Ukraine, according to President Joe Biden. Biden wrote in a guest article for the "New York Times" that the attacked country should be able to hit "important targets on the battlefield in Ukraine" more precisely. At the same time, Biden assured: "We do not want a war between NATO and Russia." Nor did the US attempt to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The White House said on Tuesday evening (local time) that Ukraine had pledged not to attack targets on Russian territory with the US-made HIMARS artillery system. The system is part of a package worth 700 million dollars (652 million euros), which also includes projectiles, radar systems , Javelin anti-tank weapons, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts. A senior US official said the US would supply missiles with the HIMARS system that would only have a range of about 80 kilometers.

Biden underlined that there is currently no indication that Russia intends to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. "Russias occasional rhetoric of rattling the nuclear saber" is in itself dangerous and irresponsible.

Heavy fighting in Sievjerodonetsk

In the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Russian troops are about to destroy the last bastion of the to overthrow Ukrainian forces. If the embattled regional capital Sievjerodonetsk falls, Russia would have achieved one of its war aims: complete control of the Luhansk region. From there, the Russian troops and the Moscow-loyal separatists could advance further west to capture the strategically important cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region nitric acid to an incident. The Ukrainian authorities spoke on Tuesday of a Russian airstrike on the plant. The pro-Russian separatists, on the other hand, announced that there had been an explosion there. A large plume of smoke could be seen in photos published by the Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajday, on his Telegram news channel.

Syeverodonetsk, the administrative center in the Luhansk region controlled by Ukrainian authorities , has been contested for days. The leader of the Peoples Republic of Luhansk, recognized by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin as a state, Leonid Pasechnik, said that two-thirds of the city was now under the control of pro-Russian forces.

Resistance to Russian invasion continues

Ukrainian governor Haiday said most of Sievarodonetsk is now under Russian rule Control. Still, the Ukrainian defenders didnt give up. 80 percent of the buildings in the city are damaged, with 60 percent it is not worth rebuilding , he said. Of the once 100.000 residents there are said to be 12.000.

President Selenskyj was combative. In his video speech he said that the Ukrainian armed forces are in a difficult situation due to the lack of weapons. Ukraine will, however, take back its territories guaranteed under international law.

What is important today

After weeks of discussions, the EU countries agreed at a summit in Brussels extensive boycott of oil deliveries from Russia. This is part of the sixth package of sanctions, further details of which are to be worked out in Brussels this Wednesday.
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The package could then be formally approved. It is planned to exclude the largest Russian bank Sberbank from the communication network Swift. In addition, the state television news channel Rossija 24 and the state channels RTR Planeta and TV Center are to be banned in the EU.

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom will stop supplying gas to the Danish supplier Ørsted and Shell Energy Europe this Wednesday. Germany is also affected. Orsted and Shell informed Gazprom Export that they would not pay the bills in rubles, as Moscow had requested.

Because no money had flowed for the month of April, deliveries would now be stopped. Shell has stated that gas deliveries to Germany will not be paid for in the Russian currency, Gazprom Export said. The maximum delivery volume per year under the contract is 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas. (dpa)