Russian and Ukrainian armies engage in close combat in the east Ukraine city on Sunday as Moscow’s troops, supported by heavy artillery fire, attempted to gain a strategic foothold to conquer the region in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Ukrainian regional officials reported that Russian forces “attacked” Sievierodonetsk after an unsuccessful attempt to encircle the city. The mayor said the fighting had cut power and cell phone service, and a humanitarian relief center was unable to function because of the danger.
Sievierodonetsk, located about 143 kilometers (89 mi) south of the Russian border, has emerged in recent days as the focal point of Moscow’s quest to capture Ukraine’s industrial totality. Donbass land. Russia also intensified efforts to capture nearby Lysychansk, where civilians had been rushing to escape the persistent shelling.
The two cities were the last major areas under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk province, making up the Donbas along with neighboring Donetsk. After failing to capture Ukraine’s capital, Russia is focusing on capturing parts of the Donbas that are not yet controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
Russian forces have made small strides in recent days as shelling tore through Ukrainian positions and left civilians trapped in basements or desperately trying to get out to safety. . Attacks aimed at destroying military targets around the country also cause civilian casualties
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as “indescribably difficult.” “The Russian military is trying to get at least some results” by concentrating their attacks there, he said in a speech on Saturday night.
Commoners who arrived in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Lysychansk, said they tried as hard as they could before fleeing the Russian advance.
Yana Skakova choked up with tears as she recounted how she left with her two sons, 18 months and 4 years old, while her husband stayed to take care of the house and livestock. The family were among 18 people who had lived in a basement for the past two and a half months until police told them Friday it was time to evacuate.
“None of us wanted to leave our home town,” she said. “But for the sake of these small children, we decided to leave.”
Sievierodonetsk mayor Oleksandr Striuk said there was a fight at the city’s bus station on Saturday. The remaining inhabitants of the city, which had a population of about 100,000 before the war, faced the risk of shelling to draw water from half a dozen wells, and without electricity or cell phone service, Striuk said.
Striuk estimates that 1,500 civilians have been killed in Russian attacks since the beginning of the war, as well as from lack of medicine and incurable diseases.
Institute for the Study of War. A Washington-based think tank, questioned the Kremlin’s strategy to assemble a massive military effort to capture Sieverodonetsk, saying it would prove costly for Russia and would bring less profit.
When the Battle of Sieverodonetsk is over, regardless of which side holds the city, Russia’s offensive at the strategic and operational levels is likely to culminate, providing an opportunity for Ukraine to kick in, the institute said. counter-attack operations at the operational level to repel Russian forces”. said in a review published late Saturday.
Deteriorating conditions raised fears that Sieverodonetsk could become the next Mariupol, a port city 281 kilometers (175 miles) to the south that spent nearly three months under siege before the last Ukrainian fighters began to surrender. row.
READ MORE: Putin says he is ready to discuss how to get Ukraine to resume grain shipments
An aide to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol on Sunday alleged that after Russian forces gained full control of Mariupol, they piled up dead bodies inside a supermarket.
The aide, Petro Andryushchenko, posted a photo on the messaging app Telegram of what he described as a “dumping ground of corpses” in the occupied city. It showed bodies stacked alongside closed supermarket stalls.
His claims or the authenticity of the photo could not be immediately verified, which Andryushchenko described as recent.
“Here, the Russians carry the bodies of the dead out of their graves in an attempt to restore water supplies and partially excavate. They just dump them like garbage,” he wrote.
Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said the continued shelling had created a “serious” situation in Lysychansk. He wrote on Telegram: “There are dead and injured people.
On Saturday, he said, one civilian died and four were injured after a Russian shell hit a high-rise apartment building.
But some of Luhansk’s supply and evacuation routes remained operational on Sunday, he said. He claimed the Russians had retreated “with losses” from around a village near Sievierodonetsk but had launched airstrikes on another nearby village on the strategic Siverskiy Donetsk river.
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russian forces were also trying to fortify their positions around Lyman, a small city that serves as an important railway hub in the Donetsk region.
On Saturday, Moscow claimed to have captured Lyman, but Ukrainian authorities said their warplanes were still fighting in parts of the city.
“The enemy is strengthening his units,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an operational update. “It’s trying to gain a foothold in the region.”
The Ukrainian military said that fierce fighting was taking place around Donetsk, the provincial capital.
More broadly, Russia conducted new air strikes overnight on the Kharkiv and Sumy regions of northern Ukraine, as well as in central Ukraine, Ukrainian state agencies said. .
Ukraine’s State Emergencies Service on Sunday said Russian shelling had caused fires around Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city. Russia continued its air strikes on Kharkiv, located in northeastern Ukraine, after Ukrainian warplanes pushed back their forces from positions near the city a few weeks ago.
Zelenskyy visited Kharkiv on Sunday. The governor of the region, Oleh Syniehubov, told the president that the Russian military still controls about 30% of the Kharkiv region, while Kyiv’s army has recaptured another 5%.
Syniehubov reported that Russian attacks destroyed more than 2,000 apartment buildings, of which the northern and eastern areas of Kharkiv city were particularly affected.
Zelenskyy also met with Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Kharkiv.
“I feel incredibly proud of our defenders. Every day, risking their lives, they fight for the freedom of Ukraine,” he wrote in a Telegram post.
Ukraine’s Border Guard Service said that border areas in the Sumy region, east of Kharkiv, were hit by six unguided missiles. The agency did not mention reports of any casualties.
Russia claims its forces destroyed an important Ukrainian ammunition depot in Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine that is Zelenskyy’s hometown. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the high-precision missile hit a warehouse located “in one of the industrial enterprises”.
Ukraine’s emergency services confirmed an industrial plant in Kryvyi Rih caught fire following an attack by two Russian missiles and suffered “significant damage”. Officials did not say whether it would be used as a military depot.
© 2022 The Associated Press
