''MOSCOW — The Russian foreign minister has warned the West that if it provides Ukraine with long-range rockets, Moscow will respond by taking over larger areas of Ukraine.
Speaking during an online news conference Monday, Sergey Lavrov said that “the longer the range of weapons you supply, the farther away the line from where neo-Nazis could threaten the Russian Federation will be pushed.”
The U.S. and Britain have announced they will provide Ukraine with multiple rocket-launchers capable of striking targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. The systems are capable of firing longer range rockets that can hit areas of up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) away, but U.S. said it wouldn’t supply the rockets.''
BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — As the fighting in eastern Ukraine inches forward, Russian attacks are knocking out power, water and gas to entire towns and cities — and the utility crews sent to repair the smashed transmission lines and pipes are finding themselves in the middle of the shelling.
''Even on quiet days, there is still regular maintenance work to be done.
“People still go to work during the war,” he said with a shrug.
In some hard-hit places, people have been forced to rely on makeshift outdoor ovens and stoves built out of bricks and stones.''
https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...and-politics-fd34c02c14247c39589bd93cd85ff818
“As of today, half of the city is without water. The other half of the city takes water from boreholes,” Oleksandr Marchenko, deputy head of the Bakhmut military administration, said Wednesday. A dam to the north had been blown up, drying up the canal that runs past Bakhmut, he said.
The city has a backup water supply, but downed power lines disrupted the pumping of the water. Engineers hoped to repair the damage if it was safe to do so.
“Unfortunately, the city gets bombed every day,” Marchenko said. As if to prove his point, mortar shells whistled over his head, sending him diving onto a grassy riverbank for cover.
The mortar fire landed with a thump in the northern part of the city, sending up puffs of black smoke.
“There is no gas, no electricity, no water!” thundered Viktor Paramonov as he and a few others on the edge of Bakhmut prepared to cook on a makeshift open-air stove consisting of a wood fire and a metal plate balanced on bricks. “There is nothing.”