Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russia said on Tuesday that it had occupied large tracts of eastern Ukraine after a relentless bombardment for weeks and the recent deployment of more troops.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow forces had “liberated” 97% of the Lugansk region.
Russia seems determined to capture the entire eastern part of Ukraine’s Donbass, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. This goal seems to be his most immediate ambition in Ukraine.
But while Kremlin forces have superior firepower, Ukrainian defenders, including the country’s best-trained forces, are entrenched and have demonstrated the ability to counterattack.
Shoigu claimed that Russian forces have seized the residential neighborhoods of Sievierodonetsk and are fighting to take control of an industrial area on its outskirts and nearby cities.
Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Lugansk region, has recently been the focus of the Russian offensive. Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk are the only two cities in the Donbas to resist the Russian invasion, which is being aided by local pro-Kremlin forces.
Shoigu added that Russian troops were pushing their offensive towards the city of Popasna and noted that they had taken control of Lyman and Sviatohirsk and 15 other cities in the region.
Popasna is a pre-war town of 20,000 inhabitants located about 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) south of Sievierodonetsk.
A Ukrainian official said on Tuesday that Moscow was deploying reinforcements to troops in eastern Ukraine as Russian artillery bombardment aimed at destroying Ukrainian defenses.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai has admitted that Russian forces control the industrial outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, one of the two cities in the Luhansk region that are still in Ukrainian hands.
“The toughest street fights continue, with varying degrees of success,” Haidai told The Associated Press. “The situation is constantly changing, but the Ukrainians are repelling the attacks.”
Moscow’s strategy, however, has suffered numerous setbacks since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, including a failed attempt to take Kyiv, the capital.
Moscow forces also maintained an artillery bombardment of Lysychansk, a city near Sievierodonetsk that is almost entirely controlled by Russian troops.
Haidai said Russian troops bombed a local market, a school and a university building, destroying the latter. Three injured were sent to hospitals in other parts of Ukraine, he said.
“The total destruction of the city is underway, the Russian bombing has intensified significantly over the last 24 hours. The Russians are using scorched earth tactics,” Haidai said.
In all, Ukrainian forces had repelled 10 Russian attacks in the previous 24 hours, according to Haidai. Your report could not be independently verified.
Ukraine is receiving weapons and ammunition from the West to help defend against relentless Russian attacks. This aid has become a target for Russian artillery and warplanes.
Russia said on Tuesday that its forces had fired two artillery systems donated by the United States and a shell supplied by Norway.
Commander-in-Chief Igor Konashenkov said the Russian artillery bombardment destroyed other Ukrainian equipment in the east of the country while the Russian air force struck Ukrainian troops and equipment concentrations and artillery positions.
Konashenkov’s claims could not be independently confirmed.
Meanwhile, dozens of Ukrainian fighters killed in Azovstal steel had been scheduled to be autopsied in Kiev.
The bodies were returned to Ukraine by the Russian occupiers of the plant, which looks like a fortress in the destroyed city of Mariupol, where its last position became a symbol of resistance against the invasion of Moscow.
Azov’s regiment was among the Ukrainian units that defended the steel for almost three months before surrendering in May under relentless Russian attacks from land, sea and air.
It was unclear how many bodies could remain on the floor.
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David Keyton and Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Kyiv; Yuras Karmanau in Lviv; Andrea Rosa in Bakhmut; and Sylvie Corbet in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, contributed to this story.
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