Ukraine, Russia trade strikes as fighting drags on in east and south

KYIV • Ukraine hit a Russian naval tugboat with two Harpoon missiles in the Black Sea yesterday - the first time it has claimed to have struck a Russian vessel with Western-supplied anti-ship weapons - even as Moscow's forces edged closer to a battleground victory in the eastern city of Sieviero-donetsk.

The tugboat, identified as the Vasiliy Bekh by Odesa region's governor, had been transporting soldiers, weapons and ammunition to Russian-occupied Zmiinyi Island (also known as Snake Island) in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian navy said.

The claims were backed by a video published on the Telegram app by the Ukrainian military of what it said were two Harpoon missiles hitting the vessel.

But in an attack that underscored the fluid nature of the battlefield, Russian missiles struck the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv yesterday morning, killing two people and wounding 20, including a child, said the region's governor. On Thursday, air strikes hit a building sheltering civilians in the city of Lysychansk, killing at least four and wounding seven, said local governor Serhiy Gaidai.

There was also little respite for Ukrainian forces and civilians sheltering from Russian bombardment in the besieged city of Sievierodonetsk. Mr Gaidai said only a "complete ceasefire" would allow the evacuation of hundreds of civilians sheltering in a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk - the site of the worst fighting in recent weeks.

"It is now impossible and physically dangerous to get out of the (Azot chemical) plant due to constant shelling and fighting. There are 568 people in the shelter, including 38 children," Mr Gaidai said on Telegram. "Exit from the plant is possible only with a complete ceasefire."

In the surrounding Donbas region, which Moscow claims on behalf of its separatist proxies, Ukrainian forces are mainly defending the river's opposite bank.

In the south, Ukraine has mounted a counter-offensive, claiming to have made inroads into the biggest swathe still held by Russia of the territory it has seized in the invasion.

Amid the fighting, a Russian corvette twice violated Denmark's territorial waters in the Baltic Sea yesterday, said the Danish armed forces, adding to fears of a wider confrontation between the West and the Kremlin.

The incursion came on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, accused the West of colonial arrogance and trying to crush his country with "stupid" sanctions that amounted to an economic "blitzkrieg".

But Britain's chief of defence staff, Admiral Tony Radakin, said in an interview published yesterday that Russia has already "strategically lost" its war with Ukraine, suffering heavy losses and strengthening the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).

"Russia has strategically lost already. Nato is stronger, Finland and Sweden are looking to join," he told Britain's Press Association news agency.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS