Russian shelling kills 6 in Donbas as Zelensky replaces security chief

KYIV — Russian shelling in battle-scarred east Ukraine on Monday left six dead, Kyiv said, as the country was reeling from President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to sack two senior law enforcement officials.

Rescue workers in blue helmets could be seen digging through debris and clearing rubble from the collapsed remains of a two-storey building in Toretsk in the industrial east that was struck by Russian artillery early Monday.

"Rescuers found and recovered the bodies of five dead people in total. Three people were rescued from the rubble and one of them died in hospital," the emergency services said, adding their rescue operations had concluded.

Toretsk, a town with around 30,000 residents lies some 50 kilometres south of Kramatorsk, a key target for Russian forces that were ordered into Ukraine in February.

They initially failed to capture the capital Kyiv early in the invasion but have made gains in the eastern region of Donbas recently, capturing the sister cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.

Zelensky said late Sunday that he was firing prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova and security chief Ivan Bakanov amid widespread cases of suspected treason by law enforcement officials.

He cited “a great number of crimes against the foundations of national security and the connections established between Ukrainian law enforcement officials and Russian special services,” making the announcement.

A Ukrainian counter-offensive in the direction of those Black Sea ports has been gaining momentum and Kyiv said on Monday that Russia was digging in along frontlines in the Kherson region where Kyiv’s army are attacking.

Ukraine meanwhile accused Russia of again carrying out bombardments on civilian infrastructure in nearby Mykolaiv, a battered city near the Black Sea coast, that has been targeted repeatedly in recent days.

“Mykolaiv again was under massive missile fire,” the regional governor Vitaliy Kim announced on social media, specifying that premises showcasing agricultural machinery had been hit.

Battlefield dynamics in the south, and in the east, have shifted, Kyiv and observers of the conflict say, with delivery of long-range precision artillery to Ukraine by its Western allies.

Those weapons are a key concern for Russia, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu during a recent troop inspection said Moscow’s forces must set about neutralising systems like the US-supplied Himars.

“Shoigu gave orders to prioritise the destruction — with high-precision weapons, enemy artillery and long-range missiles,” the Russian defence ministry said.

In a BBC television interview broadcast Sunday, the head of Britain’s armed forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, estimated that 50,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the invasion with nearly 1,700 Russian tanks and some 4,000 armoured fighting vehicles destroyed.

Radakin suggested that Russia’s land forces may pose less of a threat now, but more than 20 weeks since the invasion began, Moscow said Saturday it would step up its military operations.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Monday that

Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports threatens grain supplies to tens of thousands of people vulnerable to starvation and must end, 

“It’s an issue of life and death for many human beings. And the question is that Russia has to de-block and allow Ukrainian grain to be exported,” Borrell told reporters.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will meet UN and Turkish diplomats in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss a possible agreement to end the months-long blockade of Ukraine’s ports.

Ukraine has also mined the approaches to some of its ports to protect them from Russian assault.

But Ukraine’s farms are a major source of grain for the world market, in particular in the Middle East and Africa, where food supplies are critically tight.

“The most worrisome thing is the lack of food in many countries around the world, and there is not food because Russia is blocking the export of Ukrainian grain,” Borrell said.

Borrell spoke as he arrived at a meeting in Brussels of EU foreign ministers to discuss closing loopholes in their sanctions regime to punish Russia for the invasion.

He said that Ukraine’s European allies would do what they can to help Kyiv export its grain through overland routes and across the Danube river, but warned that the ports were key.

“So, I hope, and I think I have a hope, that this week it will be possible to reach an agreement to de-block this and other Ukrainian ports,” he said, referring to Odessa.

“The life of thousands, more than thousands, tens of thousands of people depends on this agreement. So it’s not a diplomatic game.”

But Germany’s Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir did not share Borrell’s guarded optimism that the talks would bear fruit and reopen Black Sea shipping.

“There are the negotiations in Turkey. I don’t think much will come out of them. If you believe in Putin’s word, you might as well believe in Father Christmas or the Easter Bunny,” he said.

“I don’t believe the Black Sea will be safe again for Ukraine as long as Vladimir Putin or a comparable criminal in Moscow is in charge. Brussels must look for a permanent alternative route.”

Borrell said that if Wednesday’s UN talks failed, Brussels would continue to blame Russia for using the threat of starvation as “a weapon” in its conflict.

NATO member Turkey, on speaking terms with both Russia and Ukraine, has spearheaded efforts to resume the grain deliveries.

Turkish officials say they have 20 merchant ships waiting in the Black Sea that could be loaded quickly with Ukrainian grain.

But a Russian foreign ministry spokesman has stressed that Moscow would attend the meeting with a list of firm demands, including the right to search grain ships for weapons.

Ukraine has its own list of demands for security guarantees and has stressed the importance of the UN’s role in brokering the talks.