- Fights in the fierce street for the industrial city of the key east
- Ukrainian troops outnumber, will not surrender-Zelenskiy
- Eastern front under constant bombardment
- Efforts to evacuate thousands
Kyiv, June 7 (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops engaged in fierce street fighting with Russian soldiers in the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in what is a key battle in the Kremlin’s attempt to control the eastern Donbas region.
Sievierodonetsk has become the main target of the Russian offensive in the Donbas, which includes Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, while the invasion continues in a war of attrition that has seen cities devastated by artillery bombardment.
“In the city, fierce street fights continue,” the Ukrainian president said Monday in his nightly video address.
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“They outnumber us, they are more powerful,” Zelenskiy told reporters in a briefing. But Ukrainian forces have “every chance” to fight, he added.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said Russia was also launching troops and equipment on its way to capture Ukraine’s largest remaining city in Luhansk.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Monday that the situation had worsened after Ukrainian defenders pushed back the Russians over the weekend as they seemed close to victory.
In its nightly update, the Ukrainian military said Monday that two civilians had been killed in Russian bombings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and that Russian forces had fired on more than 20 communities.
Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield reports. Russia denies targeting civilians in the conflict.
Russia says it has a mission to “liberate” the Donbas, partly occupied by separatist representatives in Moscow since 2014, after Ukrainian forces expelled troops from the capital, Kyiv, and the second Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. the early stages of the war.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but described its action as a “special military operation” to eliminate what it considers threats to its security. Ukraine and its Western allies call this an unfounded pretext for a war to seize territory that is at risk of becoming a wider European conflict.
CONSTANT SEARCH
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that Russian forces were also advancing on Sloviansk, which is about 85 km (53 miles) west of Sievierodonetsk.
“The front line is under constant bombardment,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television.
“The enemy is also bombing near Lyman with the aim of destroying our defensive positions and advancing towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. There is also bombing of Svyatohirsk with the same aim.”
Kyrylenko said efforts are being made to evacuate people from several cities, some under day and night attacks, including Sloviansk, which still has about 24,000 residents.
“People now understand, even though it’s late, that it’s time to leave,” he said.
In a coordinated move with the United States, Britain said it would supply Ukraine with multi-launch rocket systems that could hit targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away, providing the most accurate and long-range firepower. necessary to reach the Russian artillery batteries. , a key component of Moscow’s battle plans.
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Zelenskiy said that Kyiv was gradually receiving “specific anti-ship systems”, and that these would be the best way to end the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea that impedes grain exports.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would respond to Western deliveries of long-range weapons by pushing Ukrainian forces further back from the Russian border.
On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would attack new targets if the West supplied longer-range missiles. On the same day, Russian missiles struck Kyiv for the first time in more than a month.
The United States, which reopened its embassy in Kyiv in May after a nearly three-month shutdown, said its embassy stance in the Ukrainian capital remains unchanged.
Western countries have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia for its invasion.
On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had imposed personal sanctions on 61 U.S. officials, including Treasury and Energy Secretaries and top defense and media executives. The move, he said, was in retaliation for “constantly expanding US sanctions.” Read more
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Reuters report; Written by Michael Perry; Edited by Himani Sarkar
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