KYIV, June 08 (ABC): Russia claimed Tuesday that its forces had taken full control of residential neighbourhoods in eastern Ukraine s Severodonetsk, after Kyiv said its outnumbered troops were fighting on in the key eastern hub.
The brutal weeks-long contest for the key city in the Lugansk region continued to grind on, with civilians fleeing and some 800 taking refuge in a chemical factory.
“The residential areas of the city of Severodonetsk have been fully liberated,” Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
The Russian army was still seeking to establish control over the city s “industrial zone and the nearest settlements,” he added.
– War hits global economy –
The war s impact continued to reverberate with the World Bank cutting its global growth estimate to 2.9 percent, 1.2 percentage points below the January forecast, due largely to Russia s invasion of Ukraine.
The toxic combination of weak growth and rising prices could trigger widespread suffering in dozens of poorer countries still struggling to recover from the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic, the bank said.
“The risk from stagflation is considerable with potentially destabilizing consequences for low and middle income economies,” World Bank President David Malpass told reporters.
“For many countries recession will be hard to avoid,” Malpass said.
The bank additionally announced $1.5 billion more in aid for Ukraine, bringing the total planned support package to more than $4 billion.
– Talks on easing grain blockade –
Amid the stark warnings of global food shortages partly blamed on the war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Turkey to discuss “security corridors” for Ukrainian grain to leave the country.
A Russian naval blockade has prevented Ukraine, one of the world s top grain exporters, of shipping wheat and other products, forcing prices sharply higher.
“Right now we have about 20-25 million tonnes blocked. In the autumn that could be 70-75 million tonnes,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday.