A man rides his bicycle between two destroyed military trucks in the city of Lysychansk in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on June 11, 2022. ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / Getty Images
Russian forces have blown up a bridge linking the stormed Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk with another city on the other side of the river, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, local authorities said on Sunday.
Sievierodonetsk has become the epicenter of the battle for control of the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine. Parts of the city have been plagued by some of the bloodiest fighting since the Kremlin unleashed its invasion on February 24.
Ukrainian and Russian forces were still fighting street by street on Sunday, Luhansk Province Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
Russian forces have occupied most of the city, but Ukrainian troops maintain control of an industrial area and a chemical plant where hundreds of civilians are taking refuge.
But the Russians had destroyed a bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River linking Sievierodonetsk with its twin city of Lysychansk, Gaidai said.
This leaves only one of the three bridges standing and reduces the number of routes that could be used to evacuate civilians or to withdraw Ukrainian troops to positions on the west side of the river.
In Lysychansk itself, Russian bombings killed a woman and destroyed four houses and a shopping center, Gaidai said.
The head of the Sievierodonetsk administration said that just over a third of the city remained under the control of Ukrainian forces and about two-thirds were in Russian hands.
“Our (forces) are keeping the defensive line strong,” Oleksandr Stryuk told national television.
After being forced to reduce its initial campaign goals after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Moscow has focused its attention on expanding control in the Donbas, where pro-Russian separatists have had a strip of territory since 2014.
Sievierodonetsk is the last city in the Luhansk province of Donbas still in the hands of Ukraine, and its loss would be a major strategic blow. The victory of the Russians would bring them one step closer to one of the stated goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin in what he calls a “special military operation.”
The smoke rises after a military attack on a site of the Sievierodonetsk Nitrogen Chemical Plant in the middle of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the city of Lysychansk on June 10.STRINGER / Reuters
Elsewhere, Russian cruise missiles destroyed a large U.S.-European weapons depot in the western Ukrainian region of Ternopil, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
The governor of Ternopil said rockets fired from the Black Sea into the city of Chortkiv had partially destroyed a military facility and injured 22 people. A local official said there were no weapons stored there.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the various accounts.
Moscow has repeatedly criticized the United States and other nations for supplying weapons to Ukraine. Putin said earlier this month that Russia would attack new targets if the West supplied more powerful missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.
Ukrainian leaders have renewed demands on Western countries in recent days to speed up heavy weapons deliveries as Russian artillery strikes the east of the country.
In southern and southwestern Sievierodonetsk, Russian forces were firing mortars and artillery around a number of settlements, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. But he said Ukrainian forces had rejected Russian attempts to advance on some communities.
Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield reports.
Ukrainian forces have proven to be more resilient than expected, but the U.S.-based Institute for War Study said that as they use the latest stockpiles of weapons and ammunition from the Soviet era, they will need consistent Western support.
Putin says Russia’s actions are aimed at disarming and “de-sanitizing” Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression to capture territory.
Also on Sunday, the leader of the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk in the Donbass said there was no reason to pardon two Britons who were sentenced to death last week after being captured while fighting for Ukraine.
A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Thursday found Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner – and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun – guilty of “mercenary activities” that sought to overthrow the republic.
Britain says Aslin and Pinner were regular soldiers and should be exempt under the Geneva Conventions from prosecution for involvement in hostilities. The separatists say they committed serious crimes and have a month to go.
“I see no reason, prerequisites, for him to make such a decision on a pardon,” Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Aslin’s family said he and Pinner “are not, nor have they ever been, mercenaries.”
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