Smoke rises from the territory of an automotive center after the recent bombing in Donetsk, Ukraine, on July 5. KAZBEK BASAYEV / Reuters
Russian forces on Tuesday hit targets in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region to pave the way for a planned armored push to try to occupy more territory as the five-month war enters a new phase.
The attacks, reported by regional officials and the Russian army, followed the capture of Moscow by the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Sunday, a move that gave it full control of the Luhansk region, one of its main war targets. .
Taking full control of Donetsk, the neighboring Donbass region, the industrialized eastern part of Ukraine that has for generations become the scene of Europe’s biggest battle, is another goal of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.”
Ukrainian troops who withdrew from Lysychansk over the weekend took defensive lines in the Donetsk area on Tuesday, according to Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Lugansk region. Ukrainian forces resisted Russian attempts to advance into Sloviansk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian defense ministry said.
In anticipation of what is likely to continue to happen in the coming weeks, Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, told television that his region had been affected overnight.
“Sloviansk and Kramatorsk were bombed. Now they are also the main line of assault for the enemy,” he said. “There is no safe place without bombings in the Donetsk region.”
Sloviansk police said a woman had been killed and at least three more people were injured in a Russian attack on the market there. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report independently.
A Reuters reporter at the scene saw yellow smoke coming out of a car supply store and flames engulfing rows of market stalls as firefighters tried to put out the blaze.
Vadym Lyakh, mayor of the city, wrote on Facebook that the center and north of Sloviansk had been bombed.
“Everyone stays in the shelters!” He wrote.
The Russian defense ministry, which says it does not target residential areas, said it had used high-precision weapons to destroy command and artillery centers in the Donetsk region, where Ukraine still controls a number of major cities.
President Vladimir Putin has told troops involved in the capture of Luhansk that they would also be part of any attempt to capture cities in Donetsk, that they “rest and regain their military readiness,” while units from other parts of Ukraine continue. fighting.
Both sides suffered heavy casualties in the struggle for Luhansk, especially during the siege of the twin cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. Both have been shattered.
A Reuters reporter who visited Lysychansk on Monday found widespread destruction and few residents in a city that was once home to nearly 100,000 people.
Those who were surveyed, Ukrainian police cars sunk with bullets, large local government buildings burned by shell fire and the damaged golden dome of an Orthodox church.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has demanded that Ukraine hand over Luhansk and Donetsk to Moscow-backed separatists, who have declared their independence.
MURAT YUKSELIR / THE BALLOON AND THE MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told President Volodymyr Zelensky during a call on Tuesday that he believed the Ukrainian army could reclaim territory recently captured by Russian forces.
Johnson updated Zelensky on the latest deliveries of British military equipment, including 10 self-propelled artillery systems and stray ammunition, which will arrive in the coming days and weeks, a spokesman said.
Zelensky’s adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Russia took 90 days and paid a high price to capture two medium-sized cities.
“This is Russia’s last victory on Ukrainian territory,” Arestovych said in a video posted online.
He said that in addition to the battle for Donetsk, Ukraine hoped to launch counteroffensives in the south of the country. Russia could struggle to redirect its forces there with 60 percent of them concentrated in the east, he said.
“And there are no more forces that can be brought from Russia. They paid a great price for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.”
Some military experts estimated that the hard-fought victory had brought Russian forces little strategic gain, and the result of what has been dubbed the “Battle of the Donbas” remained on the balance sheet.
“I think it’s a tactical victory for Russia, but at a huge cost,” said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank in London.
Melvin said it is likely that the decisive battle for Kyiv will not be fought in the east, where Russia is mounting its main assault, but in the south, where Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive to retake territory around the city of Kherson .
“There are counterattacks that start there and I think we will most likely see the momentum towards Ukraine as it then tries to mount a large-scale counter-offensive to push back the Russians,” he said.
Early Tuesday, Russian rockets hit Mykolaiv, a southern city on the main road between Kherson and Odessa, said Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych.
Zelensky said Monday that despite Ukraine’s withdrawal from Lysychansk, his troops continued to fight.
“Ukraine’s armed forces are responding, retreating and destroying the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day,” Zelensky said in a nightly video message.
“We have to break them. It is a difficult task. It requires superhuman time and effort. But we have no alternative. “
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On July 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that Kyiv forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region after a Russian assault, but vowed to regain control of the area with the help of long-range western weapons.
Reuters