Russian forces have fully occupied the strategic front-line city of Severodonetsk, the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city said on Saturday. The news confirmed the biggest setback of the Kyiv battlefield for more than a month, after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
“The city is now under full Russian occupation. They are trying to establish their own order; as far as I know, they have appointed some kind of commander,” Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told national television.
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, told Reuters that Ukraine was conducting a “tactical retreat” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk, located on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets River.
“Russia is using the tactic … that it used in Mariupol: to wipe the city off the face of the earth,” Budanov said. “Given the conditions, keeping the defense in ruins and open fields is no longer possible. So Ukrainian forces are marching to higher ground to continue defense operations.”
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a representative of pro-Russian separatist fighters as saying that Russian and pro-Russian forces had entered Lysychansk and there were fighting in urban areas.
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What happened in the 18th week of Russia’s attack on Ukraine
Ukrainian forces appear ready to withdraw from Severodonetsk, while NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warns once again that Russia’s war in Ukraine could drag on for “years”. Here is a summary of the war in Ukraine from 18 to 24 June.
The fall of Severodonetsk, once home to more than 100,000 people, now a wasteland, was Russia’s biggest victory since the capture of the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in eastern Ukraine after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had only yielded slow gains.
Russia now hopes to continue and take more ground on the opposite bank, while Ukraine hopes the price Moscow paid to capture the ruins of the small town will leave Russian forces vulnerable to a counterattack in the coming weeks.
Lysychansk “was a horror,” the evacuee says
In the Ukrainian-controlled city of Pokrovsk in Donbas, Elena, an elderly woman in a wheelchair in Lysychansk, was among dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from the front-line areas.
“Lysychansk, it was a horror, last week. Yesterday we couldn’t take it anymore. Thanks to the soldiers who evacuated us from there. Otherwise, that would have been,” he said. “I already told my husband that if I die, please bury me behind the house.”
A neighbor in Donetsk, Ukraine, is carrying a cat in a pet carrier and various belongings as she leaves a damaged home on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of soldiers to the border on February 24, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands and uprooted millions. It has also fueled an energy and food crisis that is shaking the world economy.
Since Russian forces were defeated in an assault on the capital Kyiv in March, it has focused on the Donbas, an eastern region formed by the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Severodonetsk and Lysychansk were the last major Ukrainian strongholds in Luhansk.
View of a damaged building in Donetsk, Ukraine, as seen on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
The Russians have crossed the river heavily in recent days and have been advancing towards Lysychansk, threatening to encircle the Ukrainians in the area.
The capture of Severodonetsk will likely be seen by Russia as a claim to its shift from its first failed attempt at “lightning war” to a relentless and forceful offensive with massive artillery in the east.
Moscow says Luhansk and Donetsk, where it has supported the uprisings since 2014, are independent countries. It demands that Ukraine cede the entire territory of the two provinces to separatist administrations.
Ukrainian officials had never held high hopes of keeping Severodonetsk indefinitely, but they hoped to charge a price high enough to exhaust the Russian army and leave the invading force vulnerable to a counterattack.
Missile attacks across the country
When Europe’s largest land conflict since World War II entered its fifth month, Russian missiles also rained down in the west, north and south of the country.
“48 cruise missiles. At night. Across Ukraine,” Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, cause panic and make people afraid.”
Ukrainian soldiers are seen on Saturday in Kostantynivka, in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, four months after the start of their neighbor’s widespread Russian invasion. (Marko Djurica / Reuters)
The governor of the Lviv region of western Ukraine said six missiles were fired from the Black Sea at a base near the border with Poland. Four hit the target, but two were destroyed.
In the north, the governor of the Zhytomyr region said attacks on a military target killed at least one soldier. In the south, the mayor of Mykolaiv said on Saturday that five cruise missiles hit the city and nearby areas.
Russia denies targeting civilians. Kyiv and the West say Russian forces have committed war crimes against civilians.
Ukraine’s top general, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, wrote in the Telegram application on Saturday that US-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, were now deployed and hitting targets in areas occupied by Russia. of Ukraine.
Asked about a possible counterattack in the south, Budanov said Ukraine should start seeing results “from August”.
“Just wait a bit and we’ll see what it brings,” he told Reuters.
The war will be discussed at the G7 summit in Germany
Despite the setbacks of the battlefield, Kyiv has won support from the West, which has imposed sanctions on Russia and sent weapons to Ukraine.
The war has had a major impact on the global economy and European security agreements, driving up gas, oil and food prices, pushing the EU to reduce its heavy dependence on Russian energy and made that Finland and Sweden seek NATO membership.
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Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, Yulia Kovaliv, says Ukraine’s request for Canadian light armored vehicles is “under consideration,” but stressed that time is of the essence. “Every day of delay, unfortunately, costs the lives of our soldiers”
Leaders of the Group of Seven Democracies are expected to show their long-term support in Ukraine and discuss how to tighten the screws in Russia at a three-day summit in Germany that will begin on Sunday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will take part, said he feared Ukraine could face pressure to accept a peace deal and that the consequences Putin would achieve in Ukraine would be dangerous to international security.