Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russia on Sunday called for control of Ukraine’s last stronghold in an eastern province that is key to achieving a major goal of the Moscow mill war.
The Ukrainian Army General Staff reported that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in Luhansk province, but the president said fighting for the city was still taking place on its outskirts.
If confirmed, Russia’s complete capture of Luhansk would provide its troops with a stronger base from which to advance into the Donbas, a region of mines and factories that President Vladimir Putin is determined to capture in a campaign that could determine the course of the war. whole war.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that Russian troops, along with a local separatist militia, “have established full control over the city of Lysychansk” and that they now have all of Luhansk, according to a ministry statement released Sunday .
As is typical with these descriptions, the Russian declaration characterized the victories as “the liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic.” The separatists in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk, which form the Donbas and host large Russian-speaking populations, declared independence from Kyiv in 2014 and their forces have been fighting Ukrainian troops there ever since. Russia formally recognized the self-proclaimed republics days before the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Ukrainian and Russian forces fought fiercely for Lysychansk in the last days after the neighboring city fell last week. On Sunday evening, the Ukrainian Army General Staff confirmed on social media that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk “to preserve the lives of Ukrainian defenders.”
Earlier, however, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv forces were still fighting Russian soldiers on the outskirts of the city “in a very difficult and dangerous situation.”
“We cannot give you the final judgment. Lysychansk is still fighting,” Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv alongside Australia’s visiting prime minister. He noted that the territory can move quickly from side to side.
Russian forces maintain an advantage in the area, he acknowledged, calling it a “weak spot” Ukrainian military.
The capture of Lysychansk would give the Russians more territory from which to intensify the attacks on Donetsk. In recent weeks, it was thought that Russian forces had about half of Donetsk, but it is unclear where things are now.
If Russia imposes itself on the Donbas, Ukraine would lose not only land, but perhaps the bulk of its most capable military forces, paving the way for Moscow to take more territory and strengthen its ability to dictate terms to Kyiv.
Since failing to take Kyiv and other areas of northern and central Ukraine early in the war, Russia has focused on the Donbas, launching fierce bombing and house-to-house fighting that devastated neighboring Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk and the villages. nearby. Few details emerged from any city during the battles, which decimated their populations as people died or fled.
Russian forces already appeared to be advancing in Donetsk, concentrating rocket attacks on the large Ukrainian-controlled city of Slovyansk, where at least six people were killed, regional government spokeswoman Tatiana Ignatchenko told Ukrainian television.
Kramatorsk, another major city in the Donetsk region, was also criticized, the regional administration said.
Far from fighting in the east, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited a city near the capital on Sunday that was severely damaged early in the war. Albanese called the destruction of Irpin “devastating.”
“These are houses and these are livelihoods and in fact lives that have been lost here in this city,” he said.
Meanwhile, the exiled mayor of the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol said on Sunday that Ukrainian rockets destroyed one of the four Russian military bases in the city.
Attacks were also reported inside Russia, in a revival of the apparent sporadic Ukrainian attacks on the border. The governor of the Belgorod region in western Russia said fragments of an intercepted Ukrainian missile killed four people on Sunday. In the Russian city of Kursk, two Ukrainian drones were shot down, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Kursk regional governor Roman Starovoit said the city of Tetkino, on the border with Ukraine, was left under mortar fire.
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Ebel reported from Prokovsk, Ukraine. Associated Press journalist Maria Grazia Murru contributed from Kyiv.
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