Russia-Ukraine war updates for June 14, 2022 

 ukraine says it remains in control of a crucial chemical plant in the eastern city of several donetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering the l

uhansk nregional governor rejected claims by pro-russian separatists that ukrainian troops had been blockaded there he says ukrainian forces continue to hold an industrial zone in the city the area has seen consistent bitter street battles

and heavy russian shelling sever donetsk has become the epicenter of the battle in eastern ukraine dw correspondent rebecca ritters is in the ukrainian capital kiev hi rebecca talk to us about the situation in severe donetsk where reportedly ukrainian troops only remain in control of one chemical plant that's right michael as you rightly mentioned several dinettes has been at

the center of the battle uh so far the battle at the moment in the don bass for some weeks now and russia has been gradually pushing forward but it's been a very slow and gradual push forward ukraine managing to hold back at least a fast advance but as you say now only this azot chemical uh industrial site is under ukrainian control and russia now uh does control the rest of the city uh we're you know it's it's a little bit reminiscent of what we saw in mariupol in the azov style plant with civilians both workers from the from the industrial plant and

civilians trapped there hiding underground with about three or four hundred uh ukrainian soldiers as well trying to maintain they're obviously trying to not resist russian control they don't want to give up that area and have russia push through uh to the sister city on the other side of the river which is lisa as both sides we understand exchange fire many civilians are still trying to

get out with their lives what can you tell us about their situation the situation of course as you can imagine remains dire in that city uh it's been continuously bombarded people are living underground as we said there are 800 expected 800 civilians living underground of this this plant but there are other people in the city there's believed to be between 10 and 15 000

people still in several donetsk they are living in these conditions they have no access there's no power there's no water and there's really no supply routes in so there's really you know little access to any food humanitarian aid that kind of thing getting out of that city is almost impossible any kind of official evacuations are long over so anybody who is manages to get out will be doing so really at their own risk it is a dire situation and it will continue to be so as long as this fighting continues there rebecca as you know european union chief ursula funda line was in kiev yesterday promising some movement this upcoming week on ukraine's bid to become an eu member now ukraine's president zielinski

talked about that in his latest video address we hear some of what he had to say and then get your reaction i am sure that we will soon receive an answer on the candidate's status for ukraine i am convinced that this decision can strengthen not only our country but the entire european union what else needs to happen in europe to make it clear to skeptics that the very fact of keeping ukraine outside the european union works against europe rebecca the ukrainian president sounding very determined there but some eu leaders like french president emmanuel

macron say it will take years decades even for ukraine to join the european union so why is this membership bid so important to zielinski right now well valencia's argument is that ukraine is putin's first stop really and that the whole european project could be at risk of collapse eve putin is allowed to continue zalenski looking for security assurances from the eu are being for being and being a part of the eu as it were i mean the ukraine has or large factions of ukraine have long wanted to become part of the eu but obviously the situation here the security situation

has obviously hastened uh the desire to then have these security assurances from the eu but you know as you just rightly stated president macron of france saying that this can take decades and that is true i mean we've seen most bids for the eu take around about 10 years so there is no legal framework for fast tracking as it were so even if the candidacy is allowed next week as is expected it's still a very long road

ahead for president zielinski uh he said he's not necessarily looking for a fast track but this is definitely uh in his mind a step in the right direction dw's rebecca ritters in keeve many thanks rebecca german chancellor olaf schultz will travel to ukraine's capital kiev before the end of june according to german media sources the build newspaper reports that the chancellor will visit with french president emmanuel macron and italian prime minister mario draghi this will mark the first time schultz has visited the ukrainian capital since the war began the german government has so far declined to comment on the report

i'm now joined by dw political uh correspondent benjamin alvarez gruber benjamin what more can you tell us paris have been planning this trip for a long time that's what this media reports also say that as you rightly just mentioned have not been confirmed by the german government yet they say that french president emmanuel macro wanted to invite his italian counterpart prime minister draghi to this trip that the idea of this trip is to also

show european solidarity with ukraine in this difficult situation benjamin as you well know the german chancellor has been criticized for being timid and indecisive in reaction to this war how significant would a visit by schultz to kiev be it is highly significant and there has been pressure not only from the opposition but also from government parties who say that the german chancellor should go to ukraine should go to keefe to meet with ukrainian president zelinski as well we had friedrich math the head of the opposition the leader of the 

conservative cdu party who was in keith already so the pressure is mounting but as many are rightly saying he needs to have something in his bag in his luggage it could be either a support of a possible membership of ukraine to join the european union or did the liberty of heavy weapons but when it comes to weapons they want to see actions they don't want to just have a photo opportunities or just have promises and that's something that the german chancellor had also stressed when he was asked on this it's not new that they want the german chancellor to go to ukraine once he was asked he said i will not be one of those who just go to ukraine quickly go for the opportunity and then go back so this is definitely a possibility also for the german government to show that this promises will be followed by actions and that after the trip by the german foreign minister annalina it could now be olaf scholes who together with the french president and with the italian prime minister could go to keith and could message meet president zelinski there in ukraine that's dw's benjamin alvarez gruber many thanks benjamin here's a look at some other developments in the war delicious full stop that's the name given to the new fast food chain replacing former mcdonald's restaurants

in russia the new name was revealed ahead of their reopening on sunday the change comes after mcdonald's closed its 850 russian outlets in response to moscow's invasion of ukraine russian forces occupying southern ukraine have begun handing out passports 23 locals including the new moscow installed governor of pearson have accepted russian citizenship russia has also opened an office in melatopal in a region still partly held by ukraine