Fighting continues in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russian troops occupied the village of Pisky on the outskirts of the Donetsk region on Saturday, Interfax news agency said, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian and pro-Russian troops reported that they had completely occupied Piski a week ago. The Russian Defense Ministry also said Russian troops destroyed a U.S.-aided Seamas rocket launch system and an ammunition depot used by the system near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, Interfax news agency reported.
The Russian shelling of Kramatorsk, the last major Ukrainian-controlled city in the Donetsk region, reportedly killed two civilians.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United States and other countries to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. “After everything the occupiers have done in Ukraine, there is only one way for Russia, a state of terror,” Zelensky said in a video address Friday.
A senior Russian official said that if the U.S. Senate passed legislation to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, it would greatly damage relations between Moscow and Washington.
The TASS news agency quoted Alexander Darchiyev, head of the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, as saying the move was “the most serious collateral damage to bilateral diplomatic relations, reaching the level of de-escalation or even severance.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Saturday that the war could only end if the Crimean peninsula is returned and the Russian leader who ordered the military invasion is punished.
(Parts of this article are based on reports from Reuters, Associated Press and AFP)