Russian forces are bombing Ukrainian positions in the symbolic eastern city of Sievierodonetsk with heavy artillery bombardment, airstrikes and non-stop street fighting, according to the governor of Luhansk province.
After a Ukrainian counterattack over the weekend, Russian soldiers sought to regain the initiative. They were trying to move forward to evict Ukrainian fighters from their last stronghold in an industrial area. Between 10,000 and 11,000 civilians remain in the city.
Regional Governor Serhiy Haidai said the fierce street fighting continued with varying degrees of success. “The situation is constantly changing, but the Ukrainians are repelling the attacks,” he said.
The neighboring town of Lysychansk, a few kilometers south of Sievierodonetsk, was being “completely destroyed,” he added. “Russian bombing has intensified significantly over the past 24 hours. They are using scorched earth tactics,” he said, adding that a school and a market and a flattened university building had been affected.
Map of troop positions in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
The Kremlin is keen to declare victory in Sievierodonetsk, which would give it full control of Luhansk province. When Vladimir Putin began his invasion on February 24, he pledged to “liberate” parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast that were not yet in separatist hands.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that 97% of the region was under Kremlin control. He said his troops were advancing from Popasna, 30 km south of Sievierodonetsk. He said they had taken control of Lyman, Sviatohirsk and 15 other cities.
However, Moscow is making slow progress overall. Seven weeks after launching a large-scale military operation in Donbas, it has failed to capture the key cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, or encircle the eastern Ukrainian army, as expected.
In its latest intelligence briefing, the Defense Ministry said that Russia’s advance from Popasna had “stopped in the last week” and that it was preparing to move from the Izium city in the northwest. So far, however, it has not made any progress and has not been able to “translate tactical gains into success at the operational level,” the ministry said.
Since neither side prevails on the battlefield, there seems to be little chance of negotiations. Most observers in Kyiv now expect the war to continue during the summer until at least the end of the year.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, said that he “simply does not see the preconditions for ending the war.” Victory means restoring “all” Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014 – and separatist-controlled areas, he suggested.
The president had harsh words for his French counterpart. On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron said that “we do not humiliate Russia”: comments seen in Kyiv as meaning that Ukraine should accept the loss of sovereign territory in exchange for a peace agreement with Moscow.
“Some people want to be leaders. To be a leader, you don’t have to consider yourself one, but behave like a leader, “Zelenskiy said. [this] country, and without listening [the] position of the leader of this country? This is very, very amazing.
“We do not humiliate anyone,” Zelenskiy told the newspaper. “We will respond in the same way.”
The Russian war in Ukraine: latest developments.
In other front lines, Russia continued to bomb civilian areas. Two people were killed and three were injured in an attack in the Russian-occupied Mykolaiv region bordering Kherson. The city is affected daily. The Russian fire damaged administrative buildings, a stadium and a school.
Ukrainian troops have made some gains in recent weeks on this southern front line. It appeared on Tuesday that Russia was withdrawing some of its forces from the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region and sending them to Kherson. The city, confiscated in February, is completely cut off, and residents who have fled cannot contact residents who still live there.
After a brief hiatus, Russia bombed Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city in the northeast. One person was killed and three were injured in the latest Russian attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Moscow “does not leave Kharkiv alone and constantly keeps people afraid,” he added. The nearby villages reconquered by Ukraine last month are now under constant fire.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Tuesday that Russia was still suffering significant equipment losses. This included 1,390 tanks, 3,416 armored vehicles, 694 pieces of artillery, 207 multi-launch rocket systems, 125 surface-to-air missiles, 177 helicopters, 212 aircraft, 553 drones and 13 naval vessels.