Ukraine says Russian forces advanced in key stronghold

US plans to contribute $20 bn for Ukraine loan - Yellen

By AFP - Oct 22,2024 - Last updated at Oct 22,2024

A local resident crosses a deserted street in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, on October 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (AFP photo)

KYIV, WASHINGTON — Russian forces have advanced over a key waterway in the eastern Ukrainian stronghold of Chasiv Yar, a Ukrainian military official said, marking a setback for Kyiv's embattled forces.

The town of Chasiv Yar, which had an estimated pre-war population of around 12,000 people, sits on a strategic hilltop and its capture would likely speed Russian advances deeper in the war-battered Donetsk region.

The spokesman for Ukraine's 24th brigade Ivan Petrychak told state-run media that while Russian troops had crossed the canal on the eastern edge of the city Ukrainian troops were containing the advance.

Russian forces have been pushing against outnumbered Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

If Moscow captures the town, it would threaten some of the largest population centres in the industrial region, like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

There have been sporadic reports that Russian forces have previously crossed the canal, which serves as a de facto front line, in Chasiv Yar, and Ukraine has claimed to have fought them back.

Russian drone and artillery attacks meanwhile killed five people, including a child, in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Donetsk, officials said Tuesday.

Sumy lies across the border from Kursk in Russia, where Ukrainian troops launched a major offensive in August and have been holding swathes of territory.

Child killed in drone strike

"Three people, including one child, died as a result of a night-time attack by enemy drones on residential buildings," regional authorities said, referring to the city of Sumy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for fresh support from Kyiv's Western partners to help his forces protect towns and cities.

"This Russian terror can be overcome only through unity with the world," he said, urging allies to supply more weapons, including air defence systems.

He also called for "investments in weapons production in Ukraine" and "long-range strikes on Russian military logistics, military airfields and bases of Russian troops".

Separately, emergency services in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are steadily advancing, said two people had been killed and another wounded by Russian shelling on the town of Myrnograd.

Moscow's defence ministry claimed its latest advances in the region on Tuesday, saying its forces had captured the abandoned frontline settlement of Novosadove in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine's air force said 60 Russian drones in total had been detected in Ukrainian airspace overnight and into Tuesday morning and that 42 were destroyed.

Sumy has been under persistent bombardment since the beginning of the war in 2022, when Russian forces briefly captured sectors of the industrial territory before being pushed back.

Authorities said more than two dozen Russian drones had been shot down there overnight.

The Ukrainian operation in Kursk is part of a broader roadmap to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine recently outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In occupied southern Ukraine, Russian-installed officials said a Ukrainian drone attack on the town of Energodar, home to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, killed one person.

The United States plans to contribute $20 billion to a G7 loan package for Ukraine and could soon announce new sanctions targeting Russian weapons procurement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday.

"We're very close to finalizing America's portion of this $50 billion loan package," she told a press conference, as world financial leaders gather in Washington this week for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

But Yellen added: "What I want to emphasize is that the source of financing for these loans -- This is not the American taxpayer."

The loan involves profits from the interest on frozen Russian assets, and Yellen told reporters that "Russia is paying for this support."

"We expect to be able to contribute $20 billion to the $50 billion G7 package," noting there remains a bit more work to get there, she said.

Leaders intend for the package to go to Ukraine by this year, she added.

Her comments come two weeks ahead of the US presidential election, in which Republican former president Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck in the White House race.

Economic issues are top-of-mind for US voters, as households have been feeling the pinch from higher costs of living after the coronavirus pandemic, even as inflation has cooled.

'Strong new sanctions'

The United States is also set to announce "strong new sanctions" as early as next week targeting Russia over its war in Ukraine, Yellen said.

"We will unveil strong new sanctions targeting those facilitating the Kremlin's war machine, including intermediaries in third countries that are supplying Russia with critical inputs for its military," she said.

It has been more than 2.5 years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which prompted a series of US actions taking aim at Moscow's revenues and industrial complex.

Asked about US action in the Middle East, Yellen maintained that global oil markets should have "significant spare capacity" from Saudi Arabia and others despite US restrictions targeting companies in Iran's oil and petrochemicals sectors.

The aim was to cut off funding of what it said was the country's "destabilizing activity" in the region.

Yellen is expected to appear as well at upcoming US-China working group meetings, a platform at which Washington has earlier raised concerns about Chinese industrial overcapacity.

Yellen said she has not heard policy announcements from Beijing that address excess capacity in the way she was hoping.

With IMF and World Bank annual meetings ongoing, Yellen also urged countries to do more for nations struggling with debt.

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