Members of a foreign volunteer unit drive a military vehicle in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region, as Russia continues its attack on Ukraine, June 2, 2022.SERHII NUZHNENKO / Reuters
Ukrainian forces said on Thursday that they had advanced in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, but said their only hope of reversing course was more artillery to offset Russia’s great firepower.
In the south, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said it had captured new ground in a counterattack in Kherson province, targeting most of the territory Russia has occupied since its invasion in February.
The battle between the ruins of Sievierodonetsk, a small industrial city, has become one of the bloodiest of the war, with Russia concentrating its invading force. Both sides say they have caused massive casualties.
Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi River Donets are the last parts of the Ukrainian-controlled Luhansk province, which Moscow is determined to take as one of its main targets of war.
Russian forces are focusing all their forces on the area, Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“They don’t save their people, they just send men like cannon fodder,” he said. “They’re bombing our military day and night.”
Two Britons and a Moroccan man who were captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), one of Russia’s representatives in eastern Ukraine. Russian news agencies.
In a rare update from Sievierodonetsk, the commander of the Ukrainian Svoboda National Guard battalion, Petro Kusyk, said the Ukrainians were luring the Russians into street fighting to neutralize Russia’s artillery advantage.
“Yesterday was a success for us: we launched a counter-offensive and in some areas we managed to push them back one or two blocks. In others, they pushed us back, but only for a building or two, “he said in a televised interview.
“Yesterday the occupants suffered heavy losses; if every day were like yesterday, it would all be over soon.”
But he said his forces were suffering from a “catastrophic” lack of counter-battery artillery to fire on Russia’s weapons, and getting those weapons would transform the battlefield.
“Even without these systems, we are holding up well. There is an order to maintain our positions and we are maintaining them. It’s amazing what surgeons are doing without the right equipment to save the lives of the soldiers.”
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said on Thursday that some 10,000 civilians were still trapped in the city, about a tenth of its pre-war population.
MURAT YUKSELIR / THE BALLOON AND THE MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS
West Sievierodonetsk, Russia is pushing from the north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, which includes Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk province, by blowing up Ukrainian-controlled cities as artillery passes.
In Soledar, a salt mining town near Bakhmut near the front line, the buildings had been destroyed in craters.
The rest of the residents, mostly elderly people, took refuge in a crowded cellar. Antonina, 65, had ventured to see her garden. “It simply came to our notice then. We live here. We were born here, “he sobbed.” When will it all be over? “
In the south, Moscow is trying to impose its rule on part of the occupied territory that covers the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, where Russian-installed delegates say they are planning referendums to join Russia.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces had recaptured some territories in a counter-offensive in Kherson.
He did not give details of the location of the advance, but said Russian forces had “suffered labor and equipment losses” and planted mines and erected barricades while being pushed back.
Ukraine reported a counteroffensive in Kherson last week, claiming it had seized a bridgehead on the southern bank of the Inhulets River that formed a border of the province, a statement backed by the British Defense Ministry this week. . The situation there could not be confirmed independently.
Thousands have died and millions have fled since Moscow launched its “special military operation” to disarm and “deactivate” its neighbor on February 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain and edible oil, and in recent weeks international attention has focused on the threat of international famine caused by the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
“Millions of people could starve to death if the Russian Black Sea blockade continues,” Zelensky said in televised statements on Thursday.
Moscow blames the food crisis on Western sanctions that restrict its own grain exports. He says he is willing to allow Ukrainian ports to open for exports if Ukraine removes mines and meets other conditions. Kyiv considers these offers empty promises.
Turkey, a NATO power with good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, has tried to mediate, welcoming Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks on Tuesday.
Russia has also been trying to sell grain from confiscated areas of Ukraine, the activity of Kyiv and the West call looting. When asked if any agreement had been reached to sell grain from southern Ukraine to Turkey or a Middle Eastern country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “So far no no agreement is reached, the work continues “.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors and provide you with a concise summary of the most important headlines of the day. Sign up today.