Russia has seized several villages in recent days, fearing that its forces will soon be able to seize the major eastern cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, acknowledged in an online video that “the threat of a Russian tactical victory is there, but they have not yet done so” after the Russian gains in southeastern Lysychansk .
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Russian forces had captured the villages of Pidlisne and Myrna Dolyna and were carrying out a “partially successful” attack on the settlement of Bila Gora. aimed at the police, state security and prosecutors. buildings as they went.
“Infernal battles in Severodonetsk and surrounding villages, mass bombings in Lysychansk and hostile attempts to cut off the ‘way of life,'” he said in an update to Telegram. “The enemy is trying to establish full control over Severodonetsk.”
The advances bring the Russians closer to the T1302 highway that connects the cities with the territory controlled by Ukraine and leave Ukrainian forces almost completely surrounded by Zolote, a city that guards the southern flank of the Lysychansk outcrop.