The buildings were destroyed after a strike in Kramatorsk in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on May 25. ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / Getty Images
The advance of Russian forces approached the surrounding Ukrainian troops in the east, briefly occupying positions on the last road of a crucial pair of Ukrainian-controlled cities before being repulsed, a Ukrainian official said on Thursday.
Three months after its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has abandoned its assault on the capital Kyiv and is trying to consolidate control of the industrial region east of Donbas, where it has supported a separatist uprising since 2014.
Thousands of soldiers are attacking from three sides in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. If the two cities fell on the Siverskiy Donets River, almost the entire Donbas province of Luhansk would be under Russian control.
“Russia has the advantage, but we are doing everything we can,” said General Oleksiy Gromov, deputy head of the main operations department of the Ukrainian General Staff.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said about 50 Russian soldiers had reached the highway and “managed to grab each other,” even setting up a checkpoint.
“The checkpoint was broken, they were pulled back … the Russian army is not in control of the route now, but they are bombing it,” he said. It was possible for Ukrainian troops to abandon “one settlement, perhaps two. We have to win the war, not the battle, “he said.
“Clearly our boys are slowly retreating to more fortified positions; we need to contain this horde,” Gaidai added.
Western military analysts see the battle for the two cities as a possible turning point in the war, now that Russia has redefined its main goal as the capture of the east.
Reuters reporters in the southernmost Russian-controlled territory saw evidence of Moscow’s advance on Svitlodarsk, where Ukrainian forces withdrew earlier this week.
The city is now firmly under the control of pro-Russian fighters, who have occupied the local government building and hung a Soviet flag with a sickle and hammer on the door.
Reuters images of drones filmed from the nearby abandoned battlefield showed craters marking a green field surrounded by shattered buildings. Pro-Russian fighters move into the trenches.
Russia’s recent gains in the Donbas follow the surrender of the Ukrainian garrison in Mariupol last week and suggest a change in momentum after weeks in which Ukrainian forces had advanced near northeastern Kharkiv.
“Russia’s recent gains offer discouraging control over short-term expectations,” tweeted defense analyst Michael Kofman, director of Russian studies for the US-based think tank CNA.
MURAT YUKSELIR / THE BALLOON AND THE MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS
Russian troops have broken Ukrainian lines in Popasna, south of Sievierodonetsk, and are threatening to encircle Ukrainian forces, he wrote.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denisenko said in a briefing that 25 Russian battalions were trying to surround Ukrainian forces.
The head of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, asked Telegram for more Western weapons, especially “weapons that allow us to strike the enemy at a great distance.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later warned that any supply of weapons that could reach Russian territory would be “a serious step towards an unacceptable escalation.”
A few weeks ago, it was the Ukrainian forces that were advancing, pushing Russian troops from the outskirts of Kharkiv to the Russian border.
But it appears that Moscow halted its retreat there, retaining a strip of territory along the border and preventing Ukrainian troops from cutting off Russian supply lines running east of the city to the Donbas.
Russian bombings have killed at least seven civilians and injured 17 in Kharkiv, local authorities said, while Russian forces have been digging and maintaining control of positions in northern villages.
“It’s noisy here, but at least it’s at home,” said Maryna Karabierova, 38, as another blast could be heard nearby. He had returned to Kharkiv after fleeing to Poland and Germany before the war. “It can happen at any time, night, day: that’s what life is all about here.”
Russia did not immediately comment on the situation in Kharkiv. He has denied attacking civilians in what he calls his “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The advance of the Donbas has been supported by a massive artillery bombardment. The Ukrainian Armed Forces said more than 40 cities in the region had been bombed in the past 24 hours, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 houses and a school.
U.S.-led Western countries have provided Ukraine with long-range weapons, including Washington’s M777 shells and Denmark’s Harpoon anti-missile missiles.
Washington is even considering providing Kyiv with a system of rockets that could be hundreds of miles away, and has held talks with Kyiv about the danger of escalation if it attacks Russia, diplomatic and military officials told Reuters. USA.
“We are concerned about climbing, and yet we do not want to set geographical boundaries or tie our hands too much with the things we are giving them,” said a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said during a question and answer session on Twitter that “without multiple rocket launch systems, we will not be able to push them back.” He said that if Russia called for a ceasefire, “we will think twice, three times before agreeing.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow expects Ukraine to accept its demands in future peace talks. He wants Kyiv to recognize the Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula that Moscow seized in 2014 and the independence of the territory claimed by the separatists.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Putin should not be allowed to impose conditions of peace.
“There will be no peace,” Scholz told Davos. “Ukraine will not accept this, nor will we.”
Exactly three months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, the Kharkiv city metro system, where thousands of residents have taken refuge, was expected to reopen on May 24. Some of its inhabitants say it is too early, as Russian forces are launching a total assault on the east of the country. Louisa Naks informs.
Reuters
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