Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – After weeks of fierce fighting, Ukrainian forces will withdraw from a besieged city in the east of the country to avoid the siege, a regional governor said on Friday.
The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Lugansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombing. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the outskirts of the city, where they hid in their underground structures.
In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across the river, in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to avoid it.
“We’re going to have to withdraw our guys,” he said. “It makes no sense to stay in the destroyed positions, because the number of casualties in poorly fortified areas will increase every day.”
Haidai said Ukrainian forces “have been ordered to withdraw to new positions and continue fighting there,” but did not give further details.
He said the Russians were also advancing on Lysychansk from Zolote and Toshkivka, adding that Russian reconnaissance units raided the city limits but were driven out by their defenders.
The governor added that a bridge on a road leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian air strike and rendered unusable for trucks. The claim could not be independently verified.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of “foreign mercenaries” with a total of about 2,000 soldiers have been “totally blocked” near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk.
After a failed attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in the initial stage of the invasion that began on February 24, Russian forces have shifted their attention to the Donbas region, where forces Ukrainians have been fighting Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
The Russian army controls about 95% of Luhansk province and about half of the neighboring Donetsk province, the two areas that make up the Donbas.
After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weapons to counter Russia’s lead in firepower, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said a response had come in the form of a rocket launcher. medium-sized Americans.
A U.S. defense official confirmed Wednesday that the four promised high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, were in the hands of Ukrainian forces, but said it was unclear if they were still in use.
The U.S. agreed to provide accurately guided systems in late May, and once in the region, Ukrainian forces needed about three weeks of training to operate them. Rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).
The United States will send an additional $ 450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including four more medium-range rocket systems, ammunition and other supplies, U.S. officials announced Thursday.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
A pro-Moscow administration official in the southern city of Kherson who was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion died Friday in an explosion.
The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what he described as a “terrorist attack.”
There were no immediate claims of liability.