INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kyiv was rocked by several explosions early on Sunday, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said, a day after officials said troops had
recaptured a swath of the battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk in a counter-offensive against Russia.&Several explosions in Darnytskyi and
Dniprovskyi districts of the capital,& Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app
&Services are already working on site
More detailed information & later.&A Reuters witness saw smoke in the city after the explosions.The Ukrainian claim on Sievierodonetsk could
not be independently verified, and Moscow said its own forces were making gains there
But it was the first time Kyiv has claimed to have launched a big counter-attack in the small industrial city after days of yielding
ground.Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said street fighting continued during the day on Saturday, with both sides exchanging
artillery fire.&The situation is tense, complicated,& he told national television, saying there was a shortage of food, fuel and medicine
&Our military is doing everything it can to drive the enemy out of the city.&Russia has concentrated its forces on Sievierodonetsk in recent
weeks for one of the biggest ground battles of the war, with Moscow appearing to bet its campaign on capturing one of two eastern provinces
it claims on behalf of separatist proxies.Both sides claim to have inflicted huge casualties in the fighting, a battle that military experts
say could determine which side has the momentum for a prolonged war of attrition in coming months.In the diplomatic sphere, Kyiv rebuked
French President Emmanuel Macron for saying it was important not to &humiliate& Moscow.&We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when
the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means,& Macron told regional newspapers in an interview published on
Saturday, adding he was &convinced that it is France&s role to be a mediating power.&Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in
response: &Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it.&Because it is
Russia that humiliates itself
We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place
This will bring peace and save lives.&Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered a stark message: &The terrible consequences of this
war can be stopped at any moment … if one person in Moscow simply gives the order,& he said, in an apparent reference to Russian President
&And the fact that there is still no such order is obviously a humiliation for the whole world.&Putin will discuss the war in an interview
due to be broadcast on national television on Sunday
In a brief excerpt aired on Saturday he said Russian antiaircraft forces have shot down dozens of Ukrainian weapons and are &cracking them
like nuts&.Ukraine says it aims to push Russian forces back as far as possible on the battlefield, counting on advanced missile systems
pledged in recent days by the United States and Britain to swing the war in its favour.Asked about Macron&s mediation offer on national
television, Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said there was &no point in holding negotiations& until Ukraine received all the pledged
weapons, strengthened its position and pushed Russian forces &back as far as possible to the borders of Ukraine&.Moscow has said the Western
weapons will pour &fuel on the fire& but will not change the course of what it calls a &special military operation& to disarm Ukraine and
rid it of nationalists.Russia&s defence ministry said its troops were forcing the Ukrainians to withdraw across the Siverskiy Donets River
to Lysychansk on the opposite bank.Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Ukraine&s Luhansk province, which includes Sievierodonetsk, said Ukrainian
forces previously in control of just 30% of the city had mounted a counter-attack, recapturing another 20% of it.Gaidai said the Russians
were blowing up bridges across the river to prevent Ukraine from bringing in military reinforcements and delivering aid to civilians in
Sievierodonetsk.&The Russian army, as we understand, is throwing all its efforts, all its reserves in that direction,& Gaidai said in a live
TV broadcast.Tens of thousands are believed to have died, millions have been uprooted from their homes, and the global economy has been
disrupted in a war that marked its 100th day on Friday.Ukraine is one of the world&s leading sources of grain and cooking oil, but those
supplies were largely cut off by Russia&s closure of its Black Sea ports, with more than 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in silos.The post
Explosions rock Ukrainian capital Kyiv, mayor says first appeared on Ariana News.
