Russian and Ukrainian troops clashed on Sunday in a hand-to-hand battle in an eastern Ukrainian city as Moscow troops, backed by heavy bombardment, tried to gain strategic points to conquer the region in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance.
Ukrainian regional officials reported that Russian forces were “assaulting” Sievierodonetsk after unsuccessfully trying to encircle the city. The clashes left power and mobile phone service, and a humanitarian aid center was unable to operate due to the danger, the mayor said.
Sievierodonetsk, located about 143 kilometers (89 miles) south of the Russian border, has emerged in recent days as the epicenter of Moscow’s search to capture the entire industrial region of Ukraine’s Donbass. Russia also stepped up its efforts to capture nearby Lysychansk, where civilians rushed to escape persistent bombing.
The two cities are the last major Ukrainian-controlled areas in Luhansk Oblast, which forms the Donbas along with neighboring Donetsk. Russia is focused, after failing to seize the Ukrainian capital, on occupying parts of the Donbas that are not yet controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
View of a building destroyed after a bombing, in the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, on May 22, 2022, in this still image obtained from the video on social media. VIDEO WATCHED BY ROUTERS
Russian forces have made small strides in recent days as bombings chewed up Ukrainian positions and kept civilians trapped in basements or desperately trying to get out safely. Attacks to destroy military targets across the country also claimed casualties in civilian areas
In his video speech Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as “very complicated” and “indescribably difficult.” “The Russian army is trying to get at least some results” by concentrating its attacks there, he said.
Civilians arriving in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Lysychansk, said they held out as long as they could before fleeing the Russian advance.
Yana Skakova stifled tears when she described leaving with her 18-month-old and 4-year-old children while her husband stayed to look after her home and her pets. The family was among the 18 people who lived in a basement for the past two and a half months until police told them Friday it was time to evacuate.
“None of us wanted to leave our hometown,” he said. “But for the sake of these little kids, we decided to leave.”
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said there were fights at the city’s bus station on Saturday. Residents were at risk of being exposed to bombing to get water from half a dozen wells and there was no electricity or cell phone service, Striuk said.
Striuk has estimated that 1,500 civilians in the city, which had a pre-war population of about 100,000, have died in Russian attacks since the start of the war, as well as a lack of treatable medicines and diseases. .
Institute for the Study of War. a Washington-based think tank questioned the Kremlin’s strategy of putting together a major military effort to take Sieverodonetsk, saying it was costly for Russia and would bring few benefits.
“When the battle of Sieverodonetsk is over, no matter which side the city is on, the Russian offensive at the operational and strategic level is likely to be over, giving Ukraine a chance to restart its counter-offensive at the operational level to push back Russian forces.” , said the institute. he said in an assessment posted Saturday afternoon.
Deteriorating conditions led to fears that Sieverodonetsk could become the nearby Mariupol, a port city 281 kilometers (175 miles) south that spent nearly three months besieged before the last Ukrainian fighters surrendered.
After Russian forces gained full control of Mariupol, bodies of dead people were piled up inside a supermarket in the occupied city, an aide to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol said on Sunday.
Assistant Petro Andryushchenko posted a photo on the Telegram messaging app of what he described as a “corpse dump.” It showed bodies stacked next to closed supermarket counters.
It was not possible to immediately verify his account or the authenticity of the photo, which Andryushchenko described as recent.
“Here the Russians carry the bodies of the dead, who were washed from their graves during attempts to restore the water supply and partially exhumed. They were simply thrown away as rubbish,” he wrote.
Haidai, the Luhansk provincial governor, said the constant bombing created a “serious” situation in Lysychansk. “There are fatalities and injuries,” he wrote in the Telegram, without going into detail.
On Saturday, he said, one civilian was killed and four were injured after a Russian shell hit an apartment building.
But some Luhansk supply and evacuation routes were still operating on Sunday, he said. He claimed that the Russians had retreated “with losses” around a village about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Sievierodonetsk, but carried out airstrikes on another village close to the strategic one. Siverskiy Donetsk River.
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russian forces were also trying to strengthen their positions around Lyman, a small town that serves as a key railway hub in the Donetsk region.
Moscow on Saturday claimed to have taken Lyman, but Ukrainian authorities said its fighters continued to fight in parts of the city.
“The enemy is strengthening its units,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an operational update. “He’s trying to get his foot in the door.”
The Ukrainian army said there was intense fighting around Donetsk, the provincial capital.
More broadly, Russia launched new airstrikes overnight in the northern Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv and Sumy, and in central Ukraine, Ukrainian state agencies said.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Sunday morning that Russian bombing caused fires around Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city. Russia has maintained its bombing of Kharkiv, located in northeastern Ukraine, after Ukrainian fighters withdrew their forces from positions near the city several weeks ago.
The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said a Russian shell had broken into a house and injured a 50-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman in the early hours of Sunday in the town of Zolochiv, about 40 kilometers (20 miles) northwest. of Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian Border Guard Service said that the border areas in the Sumy region, east of Kharkiv, were hit by six unguided missiles. The agency did not mention any reports of casualties.
Russia claims that its forces destroyed a large Ukrainian ammunition depot in the eastern city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown. High-precision missiles hit a tank located “inside one of the city’s industrial enterprises,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
Ukrainian emergency services confirmed that “an industrial plant” in Kryvyi Rih caught fire after being hit by two Russian rockets and suffering “significant damage”. Officials did not say whether it was used as a military depot.
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